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CHARLES FRANCIS DONNELLY 
A MEMOIR 



Charles Francis Donnelly 



;a flpemoir 



fVith an Account of the Hearings on a Bill for the Inspection 
of Private Schools in Massachusetts in 1888- li 



Katherine E. Conway 
Mabel Ward Cameron 




For Private Distribution 

JAMES T. WHITE & CO., NEW YORK 
1909 






Copyright, igog 
AMY F. DONNELLY 



THE MASON-HENRY press 

SYKACUSK, NEW YOEK 



CGI.A253913 TWPS^-dOaUO 



:> 



2)etitcate0 

TO THE REVERED MEMORY OF 

lolin io0fpS mi\lisim& 

FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF BOSTON 



PREFACE 

This book had its germ in the proposition advocated 
by me during my husband's hfetime of pubhshing an 
epitomized report of the proceedings before the Legis- 
lature of Massachusetts during the years 1888- 1889, 
which led to the undisputed legal establishment of the 
rights of Catholics to maintain private parochial schools 
in the Commonwealth. 

As the success which Mr. Donnelly achieved in this 
instance is considered by jurists as epoch making, not 
alone for Massachusetts, but for the whole United 
States as well, I feel now, more than ever, that it is my 
duty to preserve a record of his work in an easily 
accessible form for reference. 

My lasting regret will ever be that this was not done 
during Mr. Donnelly's lifetime and under his direct 
supervision. His sympathies were broad and his heart 
was overflowing with a spirit of kindness towards all 
men. While maintaining the rights of Catholics he 
fought their battles without rancor and with the most 
judicial acumen. 

In justice to his memory I wish it understood that 
the record of his work accomplished in the Catholic 
cause is given here at this time in no spirit of animad- 
version but solely as a matter of history. There is no 
desire on my part to emphasize or reopen the misunder- 
standing of a quarter of a century ago. 



viii PREFACE 

It will always be the source of the greatest satis- 
faction to me that the services of Miss Katherine E. 
Conway could be enlisted in the compilation of this 
work. She attended the Sessions of the Legislature in 
1 888- 1 889, at which these momentous questions were 
discussed, and her account of what transpired there is 
an accurate one. 

Although the establishment of the legal status of 
parochial schools in Massachusetts is the reason ■ for 
this book, nevertheless, it was but one of many achieve- 
ments of a life devoted to the physical and mental wel- 
fare of others. 

Even with the all too brief mention of other work, 
this record in no way expresses the full extent of an 
extremely noble and versatile character. 

Amy Collins Donnelly. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Qiarles Francis Donnelly, Member of Ancient Irish Sept — 
Its Origin and Antiquity — Eogan, Ancestor of Northern 
Hy-Nials — Founder of O'Donnelly Family — Bally Don- 
nelly now Castle Caulfield — Various Spellings of Family 
Name — Dominick Donnelly, Native of Clogher, Tyrone 
— Teacher of Latin — Married Rose McKenna — James 
Donnelly, the Very Reverend the Vicar-General of 
Kerry — Hugh Donnelly Born at Clogher — His Home 
in Athlone — His Marriage and Family — The Family of 
Conway — McCarthy Family — Honoria Conway, Incident 
of Birth — Foundress and First Superior of Convent at 
St. John 3 

CHAPTER II 

Birth of Charles Francis Donnelly — Is Brought to Canada 
by Parents — Early Boyhood and Education — His Mother 
— The Family Settles in Providence, R. I. — He Begins 
the Study of Law in Boston — Receives Degree from 
Harvard University — He Visits Nova Scotia — A Contri- 
butor to Boston Newspapers — Practises Law in New 
York for Short Period — Contributor to Various Journals 
— Knickerbocker Magazine — His Valgus Pen-names — 
Poetic Gift — Sonnet on Lowell Quoted — 1862 Again in 
Boston — Visits Washington in 1863 — Contributes Pen 
Portraits to New York Leader 10 

CHAPTER III 

His First Law Case in Behalf of Catholic Children — One 
of the Founders of the Home for Destitute Catholic 
Children in 1864 — His Professional Services Engaged by 
Bishop Williams — Succeeds Samuel G. Howe as Mem- 



X CONTENTS 

PAGE 

ber of the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity — 
His Growing Reputation in Boston — Sense of Humor — 
Author of Correspondence with Governor Butler — Much 
of His Time Given to Work of Board — Dropped by 
Governor Butler — Restored by Governor Robinson — Un- 
animously Elected Chairman — He Drafts Bill Respecting 
Treatment of Dipsomaniacs — First Legislation of Kind 
in Europe or America — His Influence towards Election 
of Hospital for Men i8 

CHAPTER IV 

Services of Catholics in Civil War — Mr. Donnelly's Protest 
against the Expression "Irish-Republican" — His Letter 
to the Boston Globe Widely Quoted — Degree of LL.D. 
■ Conferred upon him in 1885 — Interest in Irish History 
and Folk-lore — Visits Ireland — ^Declines Re-election as 
Chairman of State Board of Charity in 1887 — Retains 
Membership 24 

CHAPTER V 
Decrees of Plenary Council, 1884 — Increase of Catholic 
Schools — Activity in Boston — Causes Leading to the 
Opposition to Parochial Schools in Massachusetts — Alarm 
of Anti-Catholic Element — Bill before State Legislature, 
January, 1888 — Representative Michael J. McEttrick Pre- 
sents Minority Report — Mr. Donnelly Engaged by Arch- 
bishop Williams to Safeguard Interests of Catholics — 
First Hearing, March 6, 1888 — Address of President 
Eliot of Harvard — Address of Mr. Donnelly — He Pleads 
the Bill of Rights and the National Constitution — Second 
Hearing, March 13 — Remarks by Rev. Joseph Cook, 
Josiah Quincy, Jr., and Others — Third Hearing, March 
21 — Secretary Dickinson of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Education the First Speaker — General Walker 
Opposes Bill — Emory J. Haynes, Rev. Dr. Bartol, Rev. 
Edward Everett Hale — Fourth Hearing, March 28 — 
Addresses by Rev. Mr. Leyden, Rev. James M. Gray, 
and Rev. M. R. Doming — ^Speech of Colonel Thomas 
Wentworth Higginson — Final Hearing, March 29 — Ad- 
dresses by Rev. Thomas Magennis and Mr. Donnelly. . 29 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

CHAPTER VI 

The Bill is Defeated — Effect of its Defeat in Boston — The 
A. P. A, and Committee of One Hundred — The Anti- 
Catholic School Bill of 1889 — The Hearings for and 
against the Bill — First Session — D. A. Buckley, Rodney- 
Lund, Ira A. Abbott, and Albert L. Bartlett, Superin- 
tendent Haverhill Schools — Second Hearing, March 21 
— Secretary Dickinson and City Solicitor Moody 83 

CHAPTER VII 

Third Hearing April 3, 1889 — Mr. Donnelly Questions Mr. 
Bartlett — Judge Carter — Fourth Hearing, April 5 — Letter 
of Mr. Desmond — Dr. A. A. Miner Questioned by Mr. 
Donnelly — Representative Gracey Explains Purpose of 
Bill 95 



CHAPTER VIII 

Mr. Donnelly's Argument for the Remonstrants — Speech 
of Rev. Joshua P. Bodfish — Dr. Miner's Insinuations 
Regarding "Cells" under the Boston Cathedral 116 



CHAPTER IX 

Beginning of Eleventh Hearing — Objections to the Bill Cited 
by Louis P. Plouf — Louis P. Poierer — Twelfth Hearing, 
April 19 — Cross Examination of Mr. Gargan — Edward 
Hamilton Testifies — Thirteenth Hearing, April 23 — Ed- 
ward Hamilton Finishes his Testimony — Testimony of 
Rev. Joseph F. McDonough — Of Rev. Richard Neagle 
of Boston — Nathan Matthews, Jr., Opposes Bill 143 



CHAPTER X 

Mr. Donnelly's Speech — Mr. Long Argues for the Bill — 
Quotations from his Speech — Various Other Bills are 
Offered in the Legislature in Substitution of the Gracey 
Bill— Another Bill Finally Passed 186 



xii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XI 

Mr. Donnelly's Review of the Controversy in the New York 
Press — Universal Commendations of Mr. Donnelly's 
Victory — He Refuses Remuneration from Archbishop 
Williams 205 

CHAPTER XH 

Traits of Mr. Donnelly's Character — Value of His Advice 
and Counsel to the Catholic Church — A Reputation for 
Settling Cases out of Court — His Directions "How to 
Become a Successful Lawyer" in the Boston Daily Globe 226 

CHAPTER Xni 

His Report on "Burdens of Pauperism," etc. — Interest in 
Emigrants — Contributes a Paper to the World's Parlia- 
ment of Religions — His Marriage — Complications in 
Administration of Ecclesiastical Property — Drafts Bill 
Incorporating Archbishop a Corporation Sole — Secures 
its Passage — Drafts and Secures Passage of Bill in 1897 
Giving Rights to Catholic Priests — A Power in Politics 
— Still Active on State Board of Charity — Withdraws 
from Active Practice in 1900 — Law Protecting Youthful 
Culprits His Work — Secures the Passage of a Law in 
1905 Guaranteeing that State Wards shall be Brought 
Up in the Faith of Their Parents — His Intimate Friend- 
ship with Archbishop Williams — Letter from Governor 
Guild upon His Resignation from the State Board of 
Charity 235 

CHAPTER XIV 

Personal Characteristics of Mr. Donnelly — His Generosity — 
Stature and Appearance — His Failing Health — Summer 
Home at Crow Point, Hingham — His Fondness for 
Sports 246 

CHAPTER XV 

His Last Days — Death — The Funeral Sermon — Memorials 
and Resolutions of Sympathy 255 



CHARLES FRANCIS DONNELLY 
A MEMOIR 



CHAPTER I 

A man's heritage, both mental and physical, is 
derived not alone from his parents but from all his 
forefathers as well. For this reason the following 
memoir would be incomplete without at least a brief 
consideration of the ancestral environment of the 
subject. 

The tracing of the lineage of Irish families is 
especially interesting to a student of genealogy because 
the ancient Irish, more than any other European 
nation, were scrupulously particular in the matter of 
keeping their family records. 

In the days of the minstrels and heralds the narra- 
tive genealogies were sung, but eventually the records 
were committed to manuscript. During their sessions 
of parliament representatives of the distinguished 
families of the Milesian race sat in the great hall of 
Tara under their respective escutcheons. The Irish 
were the first of European peoples to use badges of 
distinction, and their orders of chivalry long antedate 
the birth of Christ. Upon the introduction of Chris- 
tianity learning was fostered under the teaching of 
the saints, and Ireland became the great educational 
center of Europe. One of the duties of the learned 
monks was to transcribe the genealogical records of 
the various Irish septs. Some of these beautiful 

3 



4 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

manuscripts have been preserved and their contents 
published to dehght the modern scholar of antiquarian 
taste. 

In a family belonging to one of these ancient septs 
Charles Francis Donnelly had the good fortune to be 
born. The name is associated with several localities, 
and in each instance the O'Donnellys were chiefs and 
possessed of large estates. They trace their descent 
from Milesius, king of Spain, who with his eight sons 
sailed to the fair land of Innisfail, or Ireland. These 
were the Gaels of Irish history whose arrival is said to 
have taken place about 1700 b.c._, and who brought 
with them the Brehon, or old Celtic laws, the most 
ancient code of Europe, which had for their central 
principle the unity of the family. Through the branch 
of Heremon, one of the voyaging sons, the descent is 
traced to Nial of the nine hostages (a.d. 382-408), 
the one hundred and twenty-sixth monarch of Ireland, 
who reigned as high king for twenty-seven years. 
His son Eogan, from whom the county of Tyrone in 
Ulster takes its name (Tir-Eogan, the land of Eogan), 
was the ancestor of the northern Hy-Nials and the 
founder of the O'Donnelly family. Members of this 
sept were chiefs in Tyrone, at Ballydonnelly the town 
of the Donnellys (now called Castle Caulfield), and 
at other places. 

In the ancient annals the name is found variously 
spelled as Ua Donngaile, O'Dongealaighe, O'Dungh- 
aile, and O'Donnghalie. Anglicised it has taken the 
form of O'Donnelly and O'Donally. The prefix O', a 
modernized form of the Gaelic Ua, meaning grand- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 5 

son, or descendant of, has been dropped by the Ameri- 
can branch of the family. 

A coat-of-arms as confirmed to one member of the 
Donnelly sept is given in Burke's General Armory: 
"Ar. two lions ramp, combatant, supporting a dexter 
hand couped appaumee between three mullets, two 
and one gu. pierced of the field, in base the sea, therein 
a salmon naiant ppr. Crest — a naked arm embowed 
grasping a straight sword ppr. hilt and pommel or, 
encircled with a pointed Irish crown of the last. 
Motto — Lamh dearg eiren,"^ 

The grandfather of Charles Francis was Dominick 
Donnelly, a native of Clogher, Tyrone. His sept 
gave at least three bishops of the name to his native 
diocese of Clogher. Members of the family were 
always strong adherents of the National cause. Three 
were members of parliament from Tyrone, under the 
Stuarts; five brothers, with many others of the sept, 
fell, holding the bridge at the battle of the Boyne; 
four were decapitated for fighting against Cromwell, 
and their heads placed conspicuously in the market 
place at Omagh, the shire town of the county. 

Dominick Donnelly, who was born in 1725 and lived 
to be one hundred years old, came of a long line of 
classical scholars and teachers. He was a man of 
broad culture, and was a teacher of Latin at Clogher. 
He married Rose McKenna, and they were the parents 
of five children : Hugh, James, Mary, Jane, and Patrick. 

* A variant of this coat is illustrated in A Genealogical History 
of Irish Families by John Rooney, plate 8, No. 163. See also 
Armorial Families by Fox-Davies. 



6 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

James entered the priesthood and became the Very 
Reverend, the Vicar General of the diocese of Kerry 
about 1824. Eventually Hugh and Patrick came to 
America. Hugh Donnelly, born at Clogher about 
1790, died in Providence, Rhode Island, May 28, 
1868. He first established his home in Athlone, 
county Roscommon, Ireland, where he conducted a 
successful business as a woolen draper. His first wife, 
Barbara O'Sullivan,^ died leaving two daughters : 
Anna Maria who died young, and Barbara Amelia 
who married William McNamara and lived in St. 
John, New Brunswick, Canada. He married, second, 
about 1833, Margaret Conway, who was a relative of 
Bishop Sughrue of Killarney. 

Eight children were born to them : Rosanna M., 
Sister Vincentia of the Teaching Sisters of Charity, 
of St. John; Charles Francis, the subject of this 
memoir; James Frederick, William Hugh, a soldier 
in a New Hampshire regiment during the Civil War; 
Michael John, who became a priest of the diocese of 
St. John; Eleanor Margaret and Isabella H. (both of 
whom died in early youth) ; and Joseph Henry. 

The Conway family was of Welsh-Irish stock 
originating in the west of Wales. Mrs. Donnelly's 
grandfather married a Miss Ward, of the city of 
Galway. Their son, Michael Conway,^ the father of 

^'Barbara O'SulHvan was related to Margaret Conway, his 
second wife, both on her father's and mother's side — the 
O'Sullivans and Dorans. A near relative was McFinnan Dhu, 
i. e., a son of Black Florence O'SulHvan. His home was between 
Killarney and Kenmare, where he dispensed much hospitality. 

'^ Martin Conway, brother of Michael, was in the Eighty-eighth 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 7 

Margaret, enlisted in the Galway militia under his 
uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel Martin, and was appointed 
sergeant. 

While on his way with the regiment to oppose a 
threatened landing of the French at Bantry he met his 
future wife, Eleanor McCarthy, at the home of her 
father, Timothy McCarthy, who was the barrack- 
master at Inchygeela, Cork. The latter, McCarthy 
Dhu, was from Barnisthoka (hill of the winds), 
Kerry, and his wife was Margaret Barry, of the 
Barrys of Kilbarry. He died about 1800/ 

Regiment in the Peninsular War. He removed to Edinburgh 
and married an Englishwoman. 

An uncle, Cornelius Conway, established the first newspaper 
in the city of Galway. His son, also named Cornelius, was a 
printer and removed to Leadenhall Street, London. 

' Margaret Conway, who became Mrs. Hugh Donnelly, lived 
to an advanced age. She had a remarkable memory, and her 
family delighted in hearing her reminiscences. The following 
notes concerning her family were taken from her verbatim: 
"Grandfather had a brother, Jeremiah McCarthy, who was a 
captain in a brigade of Irish volunteers in 1782. He was after- 
wards sent a commission by the Duke of York, but not having 
the means to maintain the position of an officer in the regular 
army he was obliged to decline it. 

"Another brother, Thade, a bachelor, was a teacher in Inchy- 
geela, who lived in the latter part of his life and died, also, near 
the old walls of the barracks. He gave me much of my schooling, 
and, apart from Miss Tully of Ballinasloe, was my only teacher. 

"Grandfather McCarthy had also a sister, Honoria, who 
entered a convent in France and embraced a religious life, but 
left on account of ill health. She had some means, and lived and 
died in Cork about 1830. Before I married, and while my 
brother, Charles M. Conway, was at Maynooth College, she gave 
me the relic of the true cross. 

"Another sister, Catherine, married an O'Sullivan, and was 



8 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

The children of Michael and Eleanor (McCarthy) 
Conway were Margaret, born April 19, 1806, at 
Ballinasloe, Galway, who married Hugh Donnelly; 
Honoria, and Charles M. Conway. The latter was 
educated at Maynooth College under the terms of a 
scholarship founded by his kinsman, Dr. O' Sullivan. 
Eventually he came to the United States, and was for 
a time on the staff of the New York Tribune. Honoria 
Conway was born while her father was a subaltern on 
the regimental staff of his uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Martin, commanding the Galway Militia Regi- 
ment. Towards the close of the Napoleonic war, in 
the absence of Lord Clancarty, its colonel, the regi- 

the mother of Dr. Bartholomew O'SulHvan. Her other son 
went to France or Belgium, and was reported to be a lawyer. 
After their father's death Mrs. O'Sullivan married their tutor. 
She lived on her own property to the west of Kilgarvin. 

"My mother had three brothers. Charles and James McCarthy 
came to America when quite young. Charles was, I think, about 
seventeen or eighteen years old when he arrived at Shelburne, 
Nova Scotia, Dr. O'Sullivan having sent for him. Soon after 
the arrival of Uncle Charles, Dr. O'Sullivan went to Halifax 
from Shelburne and left his business in charge of Uncle Charles, 
who then sent for his brother James. Uncle Charles married 
Isabella Johnson, who was of a respected loyalist family of 
Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and she became a convert to the 
Catholic faith. 

"James McCarthy married her sister, the widow of William 
Snyder, who had three children : Anne, married to Joshua Snow ; 
Evelina, married to Gilbert Tucker, and William, who died 
young. 

"There was one daughter, Margaret, born to James McCarthy 
by this marriage. He and his brother Charles eventually re- 
moved to Meteghan, Nova Scotia. 

"The other brother, Jeremiah McCarthy, was an architect. He 
married Honoria O'Sullivan. His son, Charles J. McCarthy, who 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 9 

ment was ordered from Ireland to garrison Dover 
Castle. The wife of the young officer came from their 
home in Ballinasloe, and, while visiting her husband, 
their daughter was born just when the ringing of 
bells and firing of cannon proclaimed the victory of 
Waterloo. Thus happily ushered into the world when 
peace was declared to Europe after long years of 
destructive war, the incident seemed a romantic and 
happy augury. When grown to womanhood Honoria 
chose a tranquil career. After several years as a 
religious at Mt. St. Vincent-on-the-Hudson she be- 
came the founder and first superior of the Teaching 
Sisters of Charity at St. John, New Brunswick, where 
she is lovingly remembered as Mother Vincent. 

married Margaret Montayne, settled in Boston, Massachusetts, 
and under Mayor Wightman was appointed paymaster in the 
soldiers aid and pension office in 1861. In 1864 Governor 
Andrew appointed him paymaster with the rank of major in the 
Massachusetts militia at Vicksburg. He served for five years 
in the Massachusetts Legislature and for a like number of years 
in the Boston Common Council. His death occurred in 1866. 
The children of Charles J. and Margaret (Montayne) McCarthy 
were Honoria; Jeremiah, who was a physician; Patrick, who was 
court officer of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ; 
James, who succeeded his brother as court officer of the Supreme 
Judicial Court; and Charles. 

"My grandmother. Margaret Barry, had cousins, Angela and 
Margaret (Peggy) Barry, who married two Browns of Inchy- 
geela. Another brother, Richard Brown, married one of the 
Pynes of Mecroom." 



CHAPTER II 

The ancient town of Athlone is situated upon the 
bank of the great river Shannon. Here Charles 
Francis Donnelly was born October 14, 1836. He did 
not grow up, however, in this historic locality, for in 
1837 when he was less than one year old his father -re- 
moved with his family to Canada, and established their 
home in St. John, New Brunswick. 

Soon after their arrival a disastrous fire destroyed 
Mr. Donnelly's place of business, and his health also 
failing he went to Nova Scotia where Mrs, Donnelly's 
two uncles, Charles and James McCarthy, were men 
of property and position.^ 

For several years Mrs. Donnelly, who was a woman 
of education, fine mind, and dignity of aspect and 
manner, conducted a very successful school at Yar- 
mouth. 

Young Charles received his elementary education 
in private schools and at the Presbyterian Academy at 
St. John. He was a studious, meditative lad, with a 

^ Charles McCarthy was one of the first Irishmen to settle in 
the province. He was one of the most influential and respected 
men in Nova Scotia. For nearly fifty years he was a magistrate 
in the county where he resided, and possessed the confidence and 
esteem, of all the officials in the county. He died at the advanced 
age of eighty-two years. A more honorable man or more ardent 
lover of his country never left Ireland, for he was one of the 
old school of Irish gentlemen, and had all that courteousness of 
manner and pride of family which are characteristic of them. 

10 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL ii 

quiet, retiring disposition. After school hours his 
time was usually occupied in reading, and, having a 
most retentive memory, the store of knowledge then 
acquired lasted him a lifetime. 

When the emigration from Ireland was at its 
height he saw much of the sufferings of the poor 
exiles who were landed at the port of St. John. Their 
condition was pitiable in the extreme, and no one in 
the new world realized this more or felt deeper sym- 
pathy for them than their youthful compatriot. The 
scenes at the docks watched by the thoughtful, imagi- 
native boy, made an indelible impression on his mind, 
and from the painful sights then witnessed doubtless 
came the first impulse which led him, in later years, 
to consecrate so much of his time and energy to the 
relief of human suffering. The child not only watched 
but was alert to help, even going to the length on one 
occasion of bringing an entire family home with him 
in the firm belief that his mother would assume the 
responsibility of caring for them. 

In 1848 Hugh Donnelly, having recovered his 
health, removed with his family to Providence, Rhode 
Island, where other relatives were prosperously 
settled. Here Charles Francis continued his classical 
studies, and, having decided to follow the profession 
of law, went to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1856 and 
entered the law offices of the Hon. Ambrose A. 
Ranney. Soon after beginning his studies a typical 
incident occurred which made strongly evident the 
self-respect and moral courage of the youth. The 
Jesuit Fathers, under the lead of the Rev. John Mc- 



12 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Elroy, S. J., were negotiating for the purchase of 
the land on which the Church of the Immaculate 
Conception and Boston College now stand. The 
Protestants of that section becoming excited at the 
thought of having Catholic institutions in their im- 
mediate neighborhood sent representatives to Mr. 
Ranney's office to have their protest against the sale 
drawn up. He made a rough draft of the paper and 
handed it to his young student to be put into legal 
form. 

The youthful student had been brought up in the 
Catholic Church, as both his parents were of that 
faith, and even thus early in life had acquired an un- 
usual knowledge of church history together with an 
intimate understanding of the rights of Catholic 
citizens. 

With admirable courage for one of his years young 
Donnelly took his future in his hands by respectfully 
but most positively declining to draft what he con- 
sidered the protest of bigots. Strangely enough the 
distasteful task was not insisted upon, for Mr. Ranney 
was won by such disinterested grit and took his bold 
student into the most cordial social as well as pro- 
fessional relations, and thereafter it was his custom to 
consult him on all matters pertaining to the affairs of 
Catholics. 

Mr. Donnelly also attended the Harvard Law School 
and was graduated with the degree of LL.B. in 1859. 
In September of the same year he was admitted to the 
Suffolk County bar and at once entered upon the 
active practice of his profession. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 13 

At the time of his admission to the bar Mr. Donnelly 
had already shown much taste for literature, had 
acquired a broad knowledge of the English classics, 
and had also received a religious training uncommon 
in a young layman. 

We find him contributing editorial articles and 
special correspondence to the local press in 1859 under 
the nom-de-plume of "Vindex." The first topic to 
engage his pen was the celebrated Eliot School con- 
troversy of that year, the result of the severe punish- 
ment meted out to a boy who had refused to recite the 
Protestant version of the Ten Commandments. In 
discussing this case Mr. Donnelly maintained that the 
attempt to force any child into religious exercises 
which were against his conscience infringed the Bill 
of Rights of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
and that Catholic citizens should protest until the 
authorities were compelled to acknowledge that the 
safe-guarding of conscience protected the Catholics 
equally with the Protestants. Incidentally he showed 
the superiority of the school system, of Prussia, Austria, 
and England over the school system of America in 
protecting the religious rights of the children of all 
citizens. 

During the summer of 1859 Mr. Donnelly spent 
the months of August and September in Nova Scotia 
and New Brunswick. Letters from him, signed 
"Viator," appeared in the Boston newspapers, and 
showed an uncommon keenness of observation regard- 
ing the places he visited, and the manners and customs 
of the men with whom he came in contact. The 



14 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

impressions made on him during this trip to the land 
of Longfellow's Evangeline found expression in the 
very beautiful poem, "The Acadians' Hymn," that 
appeared in the New York Leader, August 9, 1862. 

For about two years from the early part of i860 he 
was a resident of New York, engaged in the practice 
of his profession, and in his free time contributing 
editorials, prose sketches, and correspondence to the 
New York Tribune, Nezv York Leader, Journal of 
Commerce, Morning Freeman and other journals, 
and to the Knickerbocker Magazine. These contribu- 
tions were variously signed "Lex" and "Scribe," but 
he finally adopted the pen-name of "Schuyler Conway," 
under which he exercised his notable poetic gift 

One of his poems, "Roma," the Boston Transcript 
described, on reproducing it many years after its first 
appearance, as "a gem of purest ray serene." The 
"Irish-American's Song" which appeared first in the 
New York Tribune, April 20, 1861, was adopted as a 
regimental song by the Tenth Ohio Regiment of 
Volunteers (Irish- American), General Ly tie's old 
regiment, and became popular among kindred organi- 
zations of the army. It was one of the earliest Civil 
War songs and was written to a very old Celtic 
melody — that used for "Robin Adair."^ 

His poetic gift was spontaneous and he was apt, 
where his sympathies or affections were aroused, to 
commemorate special occasions in verse. In mature 

^ It may be found in Frank Moore's collection of Songs of the 
Soldiers, Putnam, New York, 1864. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 15 

life this rare poetic faculty found its most natural 
expression in the dignified form of the sonnet, and if 
the law had not made even a stronger appeal than 
letters he might easily have ranked with the foremost 
American litterateurs. In all his work he gave marked 
evidence of unusual literary skill and artistic feeling, 
but his reserve was great. He was his own most severe 
critic and it is much to be regretted that he himself 
destroyed the greater part of his poetic compositions. 
While deploring the destruction of so much that would 
have been highly valued by his friends it will always 
be a source of keen satisfaction to feel that the surviv- 
ing manuscripts have been preserved and published by 
Mrs. Donnelly for private distribution.^ 

Mr. Donnelly considered James Russell Lowell to 
be the foremost American poet, and one of his latest 
poems was the following sonnet on Lowell's death that 
appeared in the Boston Advertiser in August, 1891. 



LOWELL 

No bugle blast sounds through the summer air ; 

Nor tramp of riderless and neighing steed. 

In solemn march behind the car we heed ; 

Nor mufBed drum is heard ; nor trumpet blare ; 

Nor volleyed fire ; nor shrouding smoke is seen. 

Yet in the earth to-day a soldier's form 

We laid ; one who brave bore the brunt and storm 

Of battle front with knightly skill and mien. 



i6 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Rest, minstrel, after all earth's weary strife; — 
Fair Harvard hath borne many sons, but none 
So tenderly beloved as those who gave 
Their 5^outh and manhood's prime, and even life. 
To Freedom's cause, until the field was won, 
And no man dare to call his brother slave. 

Towards the end of 1862 we find Mr. Donnelly 
again in Boston active in recruiting for the Fifty-fifth 
Regiment, which had been organized with the distinct 
understanding that it should go to the front for nine 
month's service as an Irish-American regiment. In 
this regiment he held the rank of lieutenant, and within 
a few months six companies had been drafted and a 
good beginning made towards the formation of the 
seventh. 

At this distance of time, and with a full knowledge 
of subsequent events, it is difficult to realize that after 
the unsuccessful campaign against Richmond in the 
summer of 1862 culminating in the disastrous national 
defeat at Bull Run, the people of the North still failed 
to grasp the magnitude of the Civil War, and that the 
call for troops continued to be for a short term of 
service. 

It had been the desire of both the officers and men 
of the Fifty-fifth Regiment to go to the front and join 
the Corcoran Legion, but orders were issued by Gov- 
ernor Andrew for the amalgamation of the Fifty-fifth 
and Forty-eighth Regiments, and a very serious mis- 
understanding, as to motives, etc., was the result. 
This misunderstanding, however, was fully explained 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 17 

and removed some time later through the indefatigable 
efforts of Mr. Donnelly, and the action of the men 
under particularly trying circumstances was com- 
pletely vindicated. It is to be regretted that this 
gallant body of men was not then permitted to go to 
the front where later it rendered such valuable services. 
In the spring of 1863, while on a visit to Washing- 
ton, Mr. Donnelly sent some pen portraits of "People 
One Meets on Pennsylvania Avenue," to the New 
York Leader. These sketches related to soldiers, 
statesmen, and sages, and are notable for their realism 
and discrimination. In Washington, as during his 
longer sojourns in New York, he was fortunate in 
meeting the great men of his profession, and had also 
much pleasant intercourse with the literary men and 
eminent journalists of a period peculiarly rich in char- 
acters of interest. 



CHAPTER III 

In 1864 we find Mr. Donnelly associated with James 
Gerrish as counsel for the Comfflonwealth in the case 
of two little children in the pubHc school in Shirley, 
Massachusetts, who had been punished with great 
severity because they declined to read from the 
Protestant version of the Bible. Mr. Donnelly appealed 
to the existing law as sufficient to protect Catholic 
rights, and on these grounds won the case. 

The question involved concerned all the Catholics 
of the state and was one that had never previously 
been brought before a judicial tribunal in Massachu- 
setts. Mr. Donnelly contended that "It involved a 
principle long contested for all over the world; a prin- 
ciple fought for and established by the founders of the 
republic, the principle of religious freedom, the right 
of allowing every man within the jurisdiction of our 
free government to worship as he thought fit, whether 
that man be a Jew, a Mohammedan, a heathen, a Pro- 
testant, or a Catholic." 

In the development of his character, as the story of 
later years will show, the welfare of unprotected chil- 
dren became his most absorbing interest, and it may be 
considered that the very keynote of his life work was 
struck when he became connected with this celebrated 
case. The beginning of his work as a philanthropist 
was in this year also. 

t8 



DONNELLY MEM0RL4L 19 

The high tide of Irish immigration to America dur- 
ing the famine years from 1845 to 1850 created a 
condition which the American poor laws, designed as 
they were for a comparatively small and stable popu- 
lation, could not cover, and in Massachusetts it was 
met by legislative action and the subsequent erection 
of three institutions for the poor. Irish landlords got 
rid of their poor tenants during this period by pay- 
ing their passage to America. These immigrant ships 
were ordinarily of the poorest class and the unfortu- 
nate passengers died by the hundreds. As a child in 
St. John Mr. Donnelly had seen much of the sufferings 
of the immigrants and the sad plight of the poor 
orphans and other surviving dependents. He had even 
at an early age taught Sunday school in the almshouse. 
The Civil War also brought about another condition 
especially appealing to Catholic charity. Hosts of 
immigrants and sons of immigrants volunteered for 
the Union service and gave their lives for the cause of 
American freedom. Their orphans had to be cared 
for. Chiefly to meet this need the Home for Destitute 
Catholic Children was established in 1864. Mr. 
Donnelly was one of the fourteen founders of the cor- 
poration and long the sole survivor of that noble band. 
As its counsel he drafted the articles of incorporation. 
This institution also followed the wise plan of finding 
good homes for the children under its care. 

In 1867 Bishop, later Archbishop, Williams of 
Boston engaged Mr. Donnelly to be his legal counsel 
and for forty years, beginning in the year just men- 
tioned with the House of the Good Shepherd, all the 



20 , DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

charters of the many great charitable, educational and 
ecclesiastical institutions established in the archdiocese 
of Boston were drawn up by him, as for instance: 
the Home for Destitute Catholic Children, St. John's 
Boston Ecclesiastical Seminary, at Brighton, the Car- 
melite Convent and many others. Practically all the 
grave, difficult and complicated cases in which the 
archbishop needed the services of a lawyer were in 
charge of Mr. Donnelly whose prudence, courage 
and resourcefulness could always be relied upon. Thus 
early in his career he gained the reputation of being 
the best equipped lawyer in New England in the com- 
mon law of the Church, and he soon came into promi- 
nence through his able and brilliant arguments showing 
the harmonious relations of Catholic Ecclesiastical 
or Canon Law to the spirit of American law and 
institutions. 

The breadth and good judgment of Mr. Donnelly's 
charitable work, together with his ever-growing emi- 
nence in his profession, attracted attention outside of 
distinctly Catholic circles, and in 1875 he was ap- 
pointed by Governor Gaston to succeed the late Dr. 
Samuel G. Howe as a member of the board which was 
then known as the State Board of Health, Lunacy and 
Charity. 

While a member of this board he was most generous 
with his time, influence and legal knowledge in all its 
work for the common good, during the time it had the 
exclusive supervision of the immigrants, the insane 
poor, etc., and after it became the State Board of 
Charity, with the scope of its service limited to the 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 21 

relief of the adult poor and the care of destitute and 
neglected children. 

In works of mercy Mr. Donnelly saw the human 
necessity, and regarded neither race, nor color, nor 
creed; but as a good American he insisted on freedom 
of conscience for all, and would not suffer even the 
least of these little ones to be deprived of their most 
sacred rights through orphanhood and poverty as they 
frequently had been under the placing-out system. 

Religious prejudice was strong in Massachusetts 
chiefly because the Church was not known for what 
she is. A special work fell to Mr. Donnelly in com- 
bating this prejudice and he was peculiarly the man 
for it. 

He was prudent in making a decision, but inflexible 
in pressing it to a logical conclusion. He would 
explain and conciliate when the case called for such 
action; otherwise, there was no escape from his inex- 
orable logic. 

From about the year 1876 to 1888 he made his 
home at the Parker House, Boston, and hardly an 
evening passed when he was not to be found the center 
of an appreciative group of friends and acquaintances 
who were attracted in the first place by his ready wit, 
and who soon formed the habit of meeting him there 
to discuss the subjects of the day — religious, literary 
and political. It was recognized by all that his store 
of knowledge was profound, and his opinions carried 
great weight. While he had a keen sense of humor 
he never permitted it to become vulgar and always 
controlled the expression of it in others. He was very 



22 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

quick to see the humorous on all occasions, and was 
ready with an appropriate anecdote apropos of every 
subject. As a raconteur he was inimitable, but on all 
occasions his language was that which was suitable 
for the most critical company. With it all he was the 
happiest and most genial of men, always looking for 
the bright side of everything and always finding and 
bringing to the surface the best qualities, both of 
mind and heart, of every one with whom he came in 
contact, and this influence for good extended to per- 
sons of every grade of society. His laughter was con- 
tagious, and the cheery smile that accompanied each 
hand-clasp was a factor towards winning confidence. 
During these years he was most diligent in attend- 
ance at the sessions of the Board of Charity. In 1883 
the Board was directed by Governor Butler to assume 
the duties of trustee to the State almshouse, and as a 
result a serious disagreement occurred between the 
governor and the Board. Although a Democrat and a 
sturdy representative of the best element of that party, 
Mr. Donnelly sided with his associates on the Board 
because he believed their course the right one. He 
was the author of the astute and conclusive politico- 
legal correspondence conducted by the Board with 
Governor Butler (1883) which was employed to 
advantage by the opponents of the latter in his unsuc- 
cessful campaign for a second term. Because of the 
stand taken by Mr. Donnelly in this controversy he 
was not reappointed to the Board by Governor Butler, 
although it was conceded by all that he was the one 
man in the State best fitted for the place. He pos- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 23 

sessed in the fullest degree the confidence of the 
archbishop, was respected by all classes, and it was 
well known that he had given about half his time to 
the duties of the Board, leaving only half for his 
regular profession of the law. 

In January, 1884, he was restored to the Board by 
Governor Robinson, and, upon the resignation of ex- 
Governor Talbot as chairman, was unanimously 
elected to that position by his associates, who were 
strongly impressed with his ability and special qualifi- 
cations. 

In the same year, when the legislature referred the 
question of the treatment of inebriates to the board, 
Mr. Donnelly, as chairman, drafted a bill subjecting 
dipsomaniacs to the same restrictions as lunatics. The 
bill was adopted by the Legislature of 1885 and was 
the first legislation of the kind either in Europe or 
America. It was an unique act, and one that reflects 
great credit upon the ability and sound judgment of 
its author. In 1889 further effect was given the new 
law by the Legislature, largely through Mr. Donnelly's 
influence, in authorizing the erection of a hospital for 
men coming under its provisions, and establishing a 
board of trustees for the management of the institution. 



CHAPTER IV 

After the Civil War prejudice, racial and religious, 
seemed to abate in Boston. The services of the Catho- 
lic men of Irish birth or descent had been prompt and 
splendid, and had abounded in examples of extraordi- 
nary individual heroism. Massachusetts had sent two 
regiments to the front which were so distinctly com- 
posed of men of Irish blood and Catholic faith that 
they were permitted by the State to carry the Green 
Flag with the Stars and Stripes; and the regiments 
from other states, also, had a large proportion of 
Catholics. 

Moreover, Catholics were coming rapidly to the 
front in the professional, literary and artistic life of 
Boston. Among these Mr. Donnelly, whose profes- 
sional duties were by this time most exacting, was the 
most prominent by reason of the nature of the work 
he had accomplished for the public good. Every one 
in Boston knew him as proud of his ancestry and 
devoted to his religion. Every one also knew 
him as an American of well-tested loyalty, more than 
able to meet the sons of the Puritans on their own 
ground. They might claim that they had ten genera- 
tions of lettered ancestry behind them. So could he. 
They were not more reserved and cautious than he, 
and they hardly matched him in political sagacity. It 
is not strange, therefore, that he resented the disposi- 

24 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 25 

tion which, in spite of other favorable changes, still 
persisted in Massachusetts to deny the name of 
"American" to any but the descendants of the first 
immigration of the seventeenth century. 

Mr. Donnelly always insisted on his own absolute 
and unqualified American citizenship, and on that of 
all persons fit to exercise citizen rights, whatever their 
race lines. He was the first man of Irish blood in 
Boston to make a strong judicial protest against an- 
other practice common throughout New England and 
humored too often by the subjects of it, of classifying 
as "Irish" practically all the Catholic citizens of the 
section. The occasion of it was this : Mr. Donnelly, 
who had been always a Democrat but never an office- 
seeker, was mentioned in the press as an "Irish-Repub- 
lican" candidate for mayor. Having defined his 
political faith in a letter to the Boston Globe, April 13, 
1885, and his unalterable resolution never to hold 
elective office, he continued : "In the nomenclature of 
party politics I know of no more offensive and un- 
American characterization of one who is a citizen by 
adoption or by birth, though of foreign parentage, 
than to prefix to his name a term indicating that he 
is of some other nationality than that to which by birth 
or choice he may belong. The prefix Trish' is of very 
common application, and is used more frequently in 
party discussions than the word 'German' or 'French' 
or 'Swedish,' etc., but any such epithet, applied in the 
sense I refer to, must be offensive to every intelligent 
and fair-minded citizen whether of native ancestry or 
of foreign birth or parentage. Citizenship is absolute, 



26 DONNELLY MEM0RL4L 

not qualified. There are no classes in citizenship; no 
race nor religious distinctions; no Yankee nor Irish 
nor German citizens, no more than there are Methodist 
or Baptist or Roman Catholic citizens. Every citizen 
is, in the contemplation of the law and of his party, an 
American, and an American only, in the political sense, 
and any other characterization of him is, and must be, 
offensive and invidious. Though an Irishman by birth 
and justly proud of my nativity in common with mil- 
lions of others on this continent, I owe Ireland no 
political allegiance whatever. Our lot is cast finally 
and formally with America, and we are absolutely and 
unreservedly Americans, not Irishmen, like good and 
true men of Irish blood and lineage in the past, who 
readily and unreservedly became Frenchmen, Span- 
iards, and Austrians." 

These sentiments received much favorable comment 
by the press and the letter was widely quoted. 

In 1885, in recognition of his services to the Catholic 
Church, the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred 
upon him by Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, 
Maryland, the oldest Catholic educational institution 
in the country. 

During all these years of active work his thoughts 
continually reverted to the land of his birth. It had 
been his pleasure to make himself thoroughly ac- 
quainted with Irish history and folk-lore, and in 1886 
the long cherished desire to revisit Ireland was grati- 
fied. He spent nearly two months upon the beautiful 
island, traveling through its whole length and breadth 
and gaining by personal observation a more intimate 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 27 

knowledge of the land and people he so dearly loved. 
He found something to delight and interest him in 
every little hamlet, in every stone and relic. His 
letters revealed the antiquarian's delight and the 
nature lover's appreciation, and it was with keen r^igret 
that he left the land of his birth and romantic attach- 
ment to return to the prosaic duties that awaited him 
at home. 

In 1887, after three and a half years' service as 
chairman of the State Board of Charities, Mr. Donnelly 
felt obliged to decline reelection, owing to the press 
of other duties, although he still retained his member- 
ship on the Board and was as active in its deliberations 
as ever. 

The world wonders when able men turn willingly 
from all its allurements to devote themselves as 
Catholic priests to foreign missions; it wonders at 
refined women consecrated to God for an apostolate 
to the poor deserted babes of civilized lands, or to the 
fallen and world-forsaken girls. 

We cannot overpraise the zeal of successive bishops 
and priests, nor the courage and devotion of those 
teaching religious, who, undeterred by the fate of the 
Ursuline Convent in 1834, subsequently made their 
various beginnings here, and accomplished all that 
their environment permitted. These would have been 
sufficient of themselves in other parts of the country. 
In Massachusetts, however, something more was 
needed. 

A layman versed in the law was needed to judge 
and condemn bigotry by the Constitution of the State 



28 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

itself, to make a fixed condition out of the theory of 
equality of all men in rights of conscience and free- 
dom of public worship. 

This need was filled by Charles F. Donnelly, es- 
peciilly in securing the rights of Catholic schools of 
every grade to their existence and full development, 
and in the elucidation on the statute books of the right 
of even the poor infant waifs and strays of society to 
their spiritual heritage. 

A man absorbed in his profession, very largely be- 
cause it was a means of serving his fellow-men; 
abhorring the cheap popularity which some esteem as 
fame; finding his happiness in pressing on without 
contemplation of the work accomplished to the new 
work which beckoned to him with the insistent hand 
of Duty; never self-recording nor self-seeking, it is 
through no care on his part that any testimony remains 
to identify him with the vast work which was wrought 
in Massachusetts for Catholic citizens and for all 
citizens. 

Strong and enlightened Catholicity, broad general 
culture, American patriotism excluding political selfish- 
ness and intrigue, the assurance begotten by early pro- 
fessional success, and that public respect and confidence 
which must eventually come to the man whose dis- 
interestedness has disarmed all prejudices were the 
qualities which Mr. Donnelly brought to his crowning 
works for education and charity. 



CHAPTER V 

The decrees of the Plenary Council of Baltimore, 
held in November, 1884, legislating definitely and 
minutely for the equipping as far as possible of every 
parish with an efficient Catholic school, and empha- 
sizing the strict duty of Catholic parents to send their 
children to such schools, except where there were 
dispensing reasons approved by the bishop of the 
diocese, naturally resulted in a great increase of Catho- 
lic schools throughout the country. Nowhere was 
there greater activity in school building than in the 
archdiocese of Boston. 

A certain anti-Catholic element took prompt alarm. 
This element, reserving the right to educate its own 
children where it pleased, was fully determined to 
coerce the Catholics into using the public schools 
exclusively. The question was forced into politics. 
The building and maintenance of Catholic free schools 
was construed into Catholic intent to dominate the 
public schools by securing a majority in the school 
committee. Members of this committee were chosen, 
then as now, at the city elections in December ; but the 
total membership was twenty-five instead of five. 
With a view to saving the public schools from the 
Pope many Protestant women hitherto indifferent to 
their privilege of voting for the school committee, 
promptly registered that they might exercise it. 

29 



30 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

By the autumn of 1885 this feminine movement 
had reached rather notable proportions. Some Catholic 
women attempted a counter movement. Mr. Donnelly 
endeavored through a published letter to allay the 
absurd panic by representing that no Catholics, either 
with or without the assistance of the women, could 
possibly secure the approval of the ecclesiastical author- 
ities for any attempt to control the public schools in 
the interest of their religion. 

Archbishop Williams, who rarely gave an interview 
to the press, considered this occasion grave enough to 
warrant a departure from his custom. Interviewed by 
the Boston Advertiser His Grace said : "Not only is 
there no such movement among the women, but there 
has been no attempt by the Catholic Church in Boston 
towards organizing such a movement. There have 
been no efforts at persuasion in this direction either in 
private conversation or publicly from the pulpit to the 
whole congregation. I am sure there is no general 
movement among Catholic women towards voting. 
It has never been advised by the Church. In fact, I 
do not believe in the Church meddling with politics in 
any shape, and the Church leaves the question alone. 
But beyond this, theoretically I do not think that 
women ought to take part in politics ; they can be much 
better employed." Incidentally it is worth noting that 
a journal of the high character of the Boston Adver- 
tiser felt safe in referring to "Irishwomen" and 
"Romish women", when it meant Catholic women, and 
even in putting the epithet "Romish" on the lips of 
Boston's native born and pre-eminently courteous and 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 31 

self-respecting Archbishop, as descriptive of the women 
of his flock. 

But the Catholic schools increased and multiplied 
and the Catholic children overcrowded them from the 
opening days. The French Canadians were making 
large and permanent settlements in the manufacturing 
cities and towns of the archdiocese, and the school 
grew with the Church. Italian immigration was well 
begun, and other Catholic immigration was beginning. 

A bill was introduced before the Massachusetts 
Legislature in January, 1888, professedly for "the in- 
spection of private schools," but in reality for the 
crippHng, if not the destruction, of Catholic schools. 
It was based on the majority report of the joint special 
committee of 1887 on the employment and schooling 
of children. Its supporters professed to fear that the 
education given in private schools fell far below that 
given in the schools of the State, whose safety they 
further fancied was in danger if schools of the former 
class were not immediately opened to the examination 
and inspection of hostile officials. 

Representative, later Congressman, Michael J. 
McEttrick presented a minority report strongly oppos- 
ing this most un-American interference with the 
rights of parents and citizens. Characteristically, 
Archbishop Williams issued no pastoral nor made the 
proposed legislation the subject of sermon or speech. 
He simply engaged Mr. Donnelly as his counsel, and 
opposed the bigots with the laws of Massachusetts, 

The bill was fought in five successive hearings be- 
fore the Legislature. At the first of the hearings, 



32 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

which took place March 6, 1888, the advocates of the 
bill did not appear, alleging various pretexts for their 
absence, but at subsequent sessions they came in full 
force, led by such prominent bigots as the Rev. Joseph 
Cook, the Rev. E. J. Haynes, of Tremont Temple, and 
one "Evangelist" Leyden. In striking contrast were 
the non-Catholics who ranged themselves with the 
Catholics in opposition. Let the names of President 
Eliot, of Harvard University, Colonel Thomas Went- 
worth Higginson, the late General Francis Walker, 
and the late Dr. Edward Everett Hale be cordially 
remembered by Catholics for their genuine Ameri- 
canism in this crisis. 

The following account is an epitome of what tran- 
spired before the legislative committee : 

The chairman opened the proceedings by stating that 
those in favor of the bill would be heard first. Secre- 
tary Dickinson, of the State Board of Education, asked 
first to have the bill fully explained. 

No one responding, Mr. Marble, superintendent of 
schools at Worcester, expressed himself in favor of 
one provision of the bill, namely : that requiring from 
all private schools a registration of pupils, and a report 
of such registration to the school committee. This is 
the only feature he would advocate. His reason, there- 
for, given in answer to Representative McEttrick, 
being that if registers of the children actually in the 
private schools were presented to the school committee 
it would save a great deal of expense in looking up 
children whose whereabouts are unknown. 

Mr. Marble objected to the substitution of night 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 33 

schooling for day-time attendance at the common 
schools, as putting too severe a strain on a child under 
fourteen. He also objected to those provisions of the 
bill which refer to supplying the wants of children 
unable to attend school, as investing the school com- 
mittee v/ith functions peculiar to the overseers of the 
poor. It is a step towards the paternalism of ancient 
Sparta. The American school system should not try 
to supply the place of parents. It is further to be 
condemned as tending to beget a spirit of dependence 
upon the public so that by and by the public will have 
to take care of all the public. Mr. Marble showed the 
absurdities inevitable on a law making the city or town 
responsible for the private schools within its borders, 
to the extent of taking them in hand and examining 
their teachers; as, for example, if the School Commit- 
tee of Cambridge should call President Eliot before 
them; or that of Boston undertake the regulation of 
Chauncy Hall School. Getting to the question of 
Catholic parochial schools, Mr. Marble, while depre- 
cating their establishment, could not say that he would 
do differently if he were a Catholic. But as an advo- 
cate of the public schools, he does not want to foster 
the parochial system, as he believes he would be doing 
were he to advocate State inspection of them. In 
answer to Mr. Mowry, of Lowell, as to how the com- 
petence of private school teachers to impart the required 
schooling shall be known without an examination, Mr. 
Marble said that the parents who patronize the school 
can be trusted to look out for that. Asked as to the 
standard of education in the parochial schools of 
3 



34 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Worcester, he said it was superior to that of the public 
schools in some directions, inferior in others; but he 
had no doubt that the general standard met the re- 
quirements of the law. He had visited these schools 
in person. 

In answer to Mr. Charles F. Donnelly as to how 
these schools compare with the average of the schools 
throughout the Commonwealth, Mr. Marble said : 
"The conditions vary so much between the city and the 
country that a fair comparison can hardly be made." 

Mr. E. C. Carrigan, of the State Board of Educa- 
tion said : "I would like to hear what is wanted by 
all parties; then if I wish to advocate or oppose any 
part of the bill, I think it my duty to do so. The State 
is not a petitioner here." 

President Eliot's Address. 
I have listened with great pleasure to what Superin- 
tendent Marble (of Worcester) has said concerning 
the public schools and his acquaintance with them; 
but, though I agree with a great many things he said 
and many of his points, I do not propose to follow 
him at all. I only wish to call attention to what seems 
to me to be the principal objection to this proposed leg- 
islation. I imagine that all the members of the Legis- 
lature will be apt to agree to the proposition that we 
desire to have the American school system made one 
for the whole State; that the breach between the 
Catholic population and the Protestant population is 
one that should be closed and not widened; that it 
is for the interest of the entire community that the 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 35 

breach which I say exists, or has widened greatly dur- 
ing the past ten years, between the CathoHc popula- 
tion and the Protestant population in this State and 
in every other American community, should be closed 
or healed and not widened by legislation. Now, it 
seems to me that this proposed legislation, so far as 
it relates to the approval of private schools by public 
school authorities, tends very greatly to widen that 
breach, and it seems to me clear that this proposed leg- 
islation is therefore injurious and hostile to the inter- 
ests of the entire community. I confine my remarks 
to that portion of these acts which relates to the ap- 
proval of private schools by public school authorities. 
In the first place this legislation would throw that 
question before every community in this State which 
is divided between the two religions. Every public 
school committee would be required to determine every 
year, by the terms of this act, whether it would or 
would not approve of parochial schools in all those 
communities, of course, where parochial schools ex- 
ist; and they are constantly increasing in number, 
and are certain to increase in number. Now, every 
elective body, every town or city, knowing that the 
approval of parochial schools is to come before its 
school committee, would go to the election of a school 
committee with that in mind ; and every year we should 
have this religious question entering into the election 
of our public school committees. Now, there are many 
communities already in Massachusetts where that di- 
vision of the community between Protestants and 
Catholics comes up quite often enough. This bill pro- 



36 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

vides a series of interesting occasions for that division 
every year, viz., the election of a school committee 
upon religious grounds. 

Of course, we all understand that though the term 
"private" schools is used in this bill, the bill is really 
directed solely to those private schools which receive 
large numbers of poor children, children belonging to 
the poorer classes. Those are the only schools affected ; 
and all this unnecessary machinery is devised either 
for the suppression of parochial schools, or for their 
improvement. I suppose a certain portion of this com- 
munity would hope that this legislation would result 
in their suppression, while another portion would hope 
it would result in their improvement. Whatever the 
actual effect of the proposed legislation might prove 
to be, I think we cannot shut our eyes to the 
fact that it would throw into every community divided 
in the matter of religion this important question as a 
matter to be voted upon every year. I can hardly 
imagine a less desirable issue to be presented in a city 
or town election where the population is divided be- 
tween Catholics and Protestants; and think those 
of us who are Protestants may look with some appre- 
hension upon what is likely to be the result in those 
Massachusetts communities where the Catholics are in 
the majority, or are rapidly approaching a majority. 

But that is not the only objection that I feel to this 
report. I feel a still greater objection to it on the 
ground that the proposed legislation tends to perpetuate 
the distinction between schools for the poorer classes 
and public schools. It tends, I say, to perpetuate that 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 37 

distinction, to put upon firm ground a separate school 
for the Roman Catholic children; and, moreover, it 
tends to enlist the sympathy of all persons in our com- 
munity in behalf of parochial schools who really believe 
in the rights of individual conscience. I suppose we all 
feel the warmest respect and admiration for the self- 
sacrifices of the Roman Catholic population which 
supports the parochial schools. I do not see how the 
children of the Puritans can possibly feel other than 
the warmest respect and admiration for the self-sac- 
rifices that the Roman Catholic population make day 
by day for the schools which in their view are the only 
schools where their conscientious belief concerning the 
education of their children can be respected. I say that 
this proposed legislation tends to perpetuate this most 
undesirable division, because I can only believe that 
the effect of this legislation will be greatly to improve 
and strengthen the parochial schools. Here is a nu- 
merically large proportion of our population, constantly 
increasing in intelligence and wealth, which is pledged 
to the support of parochial schools as the schools, and 
the only schools, of which their consciences approve. 
Now, the State attempts to deal with those schools in 
a manner objectionable to that class of the population, 
to the Roman Catholic population. 

I confess I read in this bill a certain passage, against 
which it seems to me anybody who is descended from 
the English population of three hundred years ago 
would be likely to entertain a very serious objection. 
It is the passage which provides that the school com- 
mittee be required to visit and examine, personally or 



38 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

by agent, all such private schools, to pass a vote annu- 
ally approving or refusing to approve each one, and to 
make returns in reference to such schools to the State 
Board of Education; and third, that after September i, 
1889, no such private school be approved unless taught 
by teachers holding certificates of qualification obtained 
from the school committee, as is required of teachers 
in the public schools. Here in a republic the State 
proposes to authorize an individual, at his own sweet 
will, to enter upon private premises and there to ex- 
amine the business which is conducted! It seems to 
me that, from a general point of view, this is a very 
extraordinary proposition to be made in the State of 
Massachusetts. It applies not only to Catholics, but 
also to Protestants ; it applies to everbody who is con- 
ducting a private school. But quite apart from that, it 
seems to me that this legislation can only have the 
effect, as I say, of enlisting every conscientious Cath- 
olic in the support of the parochial schools, and 
enlisting him with all his might. I believe, with 
Superintendent Marble, that the Catholic population 
is now considerably divided in regard to the support 
of parochial schools. But let us imagine what the 
effect of what I must call hostile legislation would be 
upon the Catholic population if such legislation is 
directed against them and the rights they hold sacred. 
Certainly we all agree that it would concentrate the 
Protestant population in support of what they deem to 
be their rights. I believe it is possible by legislation 
to reconcile the Roman Catholic population to the 
American public school, and that it should be so rec- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 39 

onciled, and that that is what statesmanship and com- 
mon prudence ask. But this legislation, it seems to 
me, would have the directly opposite effect. I beg my 
remarks may be understood to be entirely confined to 
that portion of this act which gives the public school 
authorities the right, and imposes upon them the duty, 
to approve private schools. 

President Eliot was followed by Mr. Donnelly. 
Address of Mr. Donnelly 

As I have said before, I have been instructed to 
appear here in opposition to any legislative interfer- 
ence with private schools. The fundamental objection 
is, of course, a constitutional question, and that is that 
the passage of the bill would be an invasion of the 
rights of the citizen. For the views of the people of 
Massachusetts upon the question we need not refer to 
any text-book, but simply to the preamble of the Bill of 
Rights itself, which I think makes pretty clear, "to 
secure the existence of the body politic, to protect it, 
and to furnish the individuals who compose it with the 
power of enjoying in safety and tranquility their 
natural rights, and the blessings of life" are the objects 
for which the State constitution was established. 

Now, there has been a conflict of opinion, and 
always will be under our Government, as to how far 
authority should be centralized and how far it should 
be diffused. There is a tendency among a large por- 
tion of the people of the country in favor of centralized 
government. In other words, the absorption from the 
people themselves of their natural rights and the 
assumption of them on the part of the Government 



40 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

claiming to exercise paternal control over them. That 
is true of many people in this State, which has its 
ideas of freedom as broadly disseminated as any in 
the Union. There are people who are in favor of the 
Government controlling in the common affairs of 
the life of every man. Now, it seems to me that it is 
contrary to the geniuses of our Government and of 
our institutions to have the idea of centralized gov- 
ernmental control prevail. It is in just such a spirit 
the kind of legislation proposed originated. It is anti- 
Democratic ; it is anti-Republican. It is that suggested 
by Henry Wilson when he wrote for the Atlantic 
Monthly in 1871 the article entitled, "A New Depart- 
ure," that the general Government should assume 
control of the education of the fifty or sixty millions 
of people in the United States. I think Senator Hoar 
advocated something in the same direction, and I be- 
lieve Mr. Blair's bill tends in the same direction. If 
there is any community that ought to be free from the 
advocacy of the European system of government it is 
the community in which we live. 

Mr. Chairman, I am a Catholic; I believe in the 
doctrines of that Church; but I believe in the widest 
liberty in the exercise of religious belief and the right 
of conscience towards all men; I do not think if we 
follow the Exemplar, the Founder of Christianity, we 
can believe anything else. I do not believe in the State 
assuming ecclesiastical functions or directing how the 
members of any denomination shall control or carry 
themselves. So far as parochial schools are concerned. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 41 

or the ecclesiastical control of schools in Massachusetts, 
there is nothing new in it. It was part of the policy 
of Massachusetts at the beginning; at the beginning, 
and up to the early part of this century the pastor had 
more to say about the schools of each neighborhood 
than any other person in it. Therefore the idea of 
parochial schools as discussed now is nothing novel, 
but the contrary. The founders of this State are 
responsible for it. The language of the Bill of Rights, 
the language of the Constitution itself shows that the 
main aim of our Government of Massachusetts was to 
urge "instructions in piety" and an attachment to a 
religious belief founded upon revelation, upon the 
Bible itself. Now what is the objection to the private 
school system that exists here among a large portion 
of the people of the community? Mr. Marble, in his 
remarks, took occasion to say that there seemed to be 
"a purpose to supplant the public school system by one 
of their own on the part of the Catholic hierarchy." 
I do not think Mr. Marble meant that, because I think 
he is too intelligent a man to make that broad proposi- 
tion and think it maintainable. There is no question 
about it, Mr. Chairman, but that the aim of the State 
is to encourage a love of learning and to have her 
citizens educated. It is more the aim of the State to 
do that than it is to determine the means by which it 
may be done. If the object is accomplished that is all 
the State has in view, that is all the State desires. 
Now we may well differ as to whether that object may 
be accomplished better by private schools or by public 
schools, or whether they may not go hand in hand; 



42 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

to some portion of the people private schools will be 
found more agreeable and convenient and to some por- 
tion the public schools, but to every good citizen who 
desires to encourage sound learning and good morals 
it makes little difference how the child is educated. 
His aim is not to proselytize or demoralize the child. 
If he does not aim at shutting out all light of the 
gospel then he cannot object to the system which ac- 
complishes a sound education. 

Now, as I understand the policy of the American 
Catholic Church, it is to see that the children are 
educated not only in reference to their duties in the 
common affairs of life, in secular affairs, but that they 
shall also receive a religious or moral training; the 
American Council? of the Catholic Church say that 
owing to the contention between the different sects in 
reference to what is true and what is untrue in revela- 
tion or outside of it, the schools are left in such a con- 
dition that the child cannot receive a proper moral 
training. On the other hand the argument of those in 
favor of the public schools, and of the public schools 
alone, is that religious training and moral training is 
something that belongs to the Church, and that Sunday 
is a day set apart for this and is sufficient for it. The 
reply will be that the world gets six days of the child's 
time and the Church only gets one. 

It is in no spirit of opposition to the public schools, 
with no desire to supplant the public school system that 
the people have associated in organizing private schools ; 
they are a part of the American people, who have 
shown their loyalty in the most convincing way pos- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 43 

sible by shedding their blood for the maintenance of 
the Government. It is too late in the day to say that 
any man because he is a Catholic, whether priest or 
layman, cannot be a loyal citizen of the United States. 

I have been very much impressed by the remarks of 
President Eliot; I did not think the discussion would 
take such a wide course; I thought the question of 
religion might be excluded from this hearing, but 
every one who has preceded me has brought it up and 
there was no course left for me to pursue but to treat 
the question from that standpoint. There is no ques- 
tion about it there has been a great deal of agitation in 
regard to the private schools established under the 
auspices of the Catholics in this Commonwealth. 
When the bill now under discussion was made public, 
all over this country as well as in Massachusetts it was 
considered a measure aimed at the parochial schools of 
Massachusetts. 

Now, so far as the rights of the citizen are concerned 
and of the individual parent, what are his rights? 
What are your rights, Mr. Chairman, as father of a 
family? Who is there that should come between you 
and your child? Has the State a right to interfere? 
Is not your right as a parent sovereign over your own 
child, as long as you teach him nothing in subversion 
of order, and discharge your natural obligations? Is 
there any State or any Church which has a right to 
come between you and your child ? Who clothes him ? 
Who feeds him? Who shelters him? Who is ready 
to lay down his life for him, but you? Therefore the 
parent is the protector, and the parent alone, and from 



44 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

whom does he derive this right? He derives it from 
God Almighty himself, and not from the State, for 
the State has no right to interfere. 

So far as legislation has hitherto gone in this Com- 
monwealth, Mr. Chairman, what has it aimed at? 
Has the State dared to assume the care and custody 
of your child ? Have the people of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts given the State any such right? I 
do not know of it as a lawyer. I know there are laws 
on the statute book for the enforcement of the duties 
and obligations of the parent toward the child, where 
he neglects or fails to perform them, but no legislation 
so far has gone to a greater extent than that. Out of 
the whole number of the people of this State how many 
parents, fathers and mothers, are there who require 
any legislation whatever to compel them to do their 
duty towards their children ? Is the percentage of the 
population larger than that which makes up the crimi- 
nal classes ? I do not think you will say that it is, Mr. 
Chairman, or any of you gentlemen. If one, two or 
three per cent, of the population of Massachusetts 
neglect their natural obligations is it to be claimed or 
pretended that for the purpose of compelling that small 
percentage to do their duty you are going to pass a law 
in subversion of the natural rights of the citizen? 
What is it which is proposed to be done? It is pro- 
posed to leave to the parent no choice in the education 
of his child whatever; that is practically it. That is, 
in other words, the parent shall not send his child to 
the instructor or teacher of his choice, but after the 
State has selected the teacher, the school, the instruc- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 45 

tor, then the State says you can send to such an insti- 
tution, and you cannot send him elsewhere. I do not 
think the people of this Commonwealth will be in 
favor of any such legislation as that. 

What will be the result if the State of Massachusetts 
should assume such an attitude as that? What is 
going to be the logic of it? Can we make the whole 
of the people of this Commonwealth, 2,000,000 in 
number, with their diversity of race, color and condi- 
tion, can we assimilate them all to some one standard? 
Can we make every man and woman of just such a 
stature mentally, morally and physically? That would 
be considered impractical. If it is proposed to proceed 
on this line, to assume the supervision and control of 
the private schools, the logic is inevitable; within five, 
ten or fifteen years you must have denominational 
schools. You cannot interfere with the management, 
control and discipline of the private schools without 
giving them the support of the State. You begin by 
approving them, by finding them satisfactory, by find- 
ing them all that is necessary and essential, and then 
follows State aid, State bounty, State grants. State 
buildings, State books, and as has been suggested, 
clothing to be furnished by the State. The president of 
our university has suggested the true course to pursue 
in this matter. It seems to me that the old proverb may 
be aptly quoted here: "Let well enough alone." The 
tendency of this experimental legislation will be to 
create a breach, or rather to widen the breach existing 
between the members of the different denominations 
in the Commonwealth ; I do not think it can be said the 



46 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Catholics in establishing their schools do not intend 
to give their children a good secular education. 
Catholics in the past did a good deal toward educa- 
tion. Some of the oldest universities owe their begin- 
ning to the Catholic Church; among them you will 
remember Oxford and Cambridge. I think the Catho- 
lic body in Massachusetts know and prize the value of 
education. Many of them, deprived of it by the Gov- 
ernment in the Old World, have gladly availed them- 
selves of it here. Is any further legislation necessary? 
Is not the certificate of the master of a school in which 
there are at times three or four hundred pupils as 
reliable evidence of the fitness of a scholar as that of 
the average school committee man ? Is not the certifi- 
cate of the pastor of a church of a religious denomina- 
tion in this city equally reliable? Should it not be 
sufficient? Should it not be prima facie evidence that 
the child is sufficiently qualified? If you want to get 
at actual results the child himself can be examined by 
the school committee. So far Mr. Marble, superin- 
tendent of schools, says he has found no obstruction. 
There has been no complaint made in behalf of the 
people of this Commonwealth that any opposition has 
been made to an intelligent and neighborly exam^ina- 
tion of any school. Had it not better go along as it 
has been going than to enforce upon the people an 
inquisitorial system by an invasion of the private rights 
of the citizen, by the passage of a law which is certainly 
contrary to the spirit of our institutions ? 

I would say, Mr. Chairman, that so far as I am 
informed, there are about 40,000 pupils in attendance 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 47 

upon the parochial schools in this State. Taking the 
cost as six dollars per scholar, it would be about 
$240,000. A body of people willing to make such a 
sacrifice are entitled to some respect and consideration 
from the community at large. 

The next hearing took place on March 13 and, as 
before, the petitioners were heard first. 

Brice S, Evans, a real estate dealer in Boston, and a 
strong supporter of the Rev. Justin D. Fulton in his 
attacks on the Catholic priesthood, spoke first. He 
said he was "in favor of Massachusetts running all 
private schools," and that he was opposed to any Pope 
or potentate interfering with the public schools of 
Massachusetts. 

The Rev. Joseph Cook, the lecturer, said : "I think 
all the private schools of the State ought to be managed 
by it, whether Catholic or Protestant. I am a Protes- 
tant; I call myself an humble pastor's assistant; but I 
am wedded to the American system of common schools 
as it stands, against dividing the school fund. If you 
appoint State officers for the purpose of keeping up 
the standard you will be dividing the school fund, and 
that, I express my humble opinion, calls for appre- 
hension." 

Asked by Mr. Donnelly how he would obviate the 
difficulty he thinks inseparable from State inspection 
of private schools, of the diversion of a certain amount 
of the school fund to strictly religious purposes, Mr. 
Cook thought caution should be exercised in the 
division of the school fund, and declared that the 



48 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

opinion of the people seemed to be made up that there 
should be no division ; he wanted no law for Catholics 
which he would not have applied to Protestants; he 
would be willing to apply the provisions of the bill to 
the Adams Academy in Quincy, or the Phillips Acad- 
emy in Andover (of which latter he is a graduate). 
He admitted, in answer to a question of Mr. James F. 
Gorman, of Boston, based on the latest reports of the 
English authorities, conceding the fact that the scholars 
in the private parochial schools have excelled, that 
"the private Roman Catholic schools in England have 
attained a very high level," but asserted that they have 
attained no such level in the Catholic countries of 
Ireland, Spain and Italy, and that the history of Ireland 
as a whole, and the history of Italy as a whole show that 
where parochial schools have had free course their 
standard is low. 

Asked by Mr. Donnelly if he had any knowledge of 
Italian school statistics, Mr. Cook said he had given 
long study to the subject and made two visits to Italy. 

Mr. Donnelly reminded him of Laing's Notes of a 
Traveler on the Subject of Education in Europe. 
"You have reflected on education under the Catholic 
Church in Italy. Mr. Laing was a good Scotch Pres- 
byterian of undoubted orthodoxy, and wrote when the 
Pope possessed temporal power in the Papal States. 
Is not Mr. Laing authority for then declaring that 
Rome, with 158,678 souls, had 372 public primary 
schools, 482 teachers, and 14,099 children in attend- 
ance; that Berlin, the capital of a rich Protestant State, 
with double the population of Rome at the time, had 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 49 

only 264 schools, and that he did not believe that 
Edinburgh, the city of his own residence, could appear 
as well as Rome in the means of giving the poor an 
education ?" 

Mr. Cook said the testimony was twenty-five years 
old, and he didn't believe it anyway. In answer to 
Mr. McEttrick, he thought the average Massachusetts 
school committee was qualified to examine in the 
country but not in the city where there is too much 
influence in favor of the parochial schools. 

Mr. Josiah Quincy, a member of the special com- 
mittee, being invited to explain the bill said : "The bill 
contemplates that which is in theory already adopted 
by Massachusetts and placed upon her statute book, 
namely, that every child shall be given an education, 
private or public. The spirit of the law as it stands 
requires the approval of any private school in order to 
make attendance at that private school equal to attend- 
ance at a public school and afford some security to the 
public that the private schools do come up to the 
standard set by the State." 

In answer to Mr. McEttrick — "Is not the only 
standard in this bill the reading and writing of simple 
sentences? Does it mean anything beyond that?" — 
"I should say that it does. What the committee is 
now considering is not the question of bringing the 
illiterate children up to a certain standard, but bring- 
ing all children in private schools up to the standard in 
the public schools." 

Asked if any complaint had been made to the com- 
mittee as to the inferiority of private schools, Mr. 
4 



50 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Quincy said : "My recollection is that at the first meet- 
ing in Boston, Mr. Carrigan, of the State Board, made 
such statements as that the standard in the private 
schools needed looking after, and raised the question 
whether their certificates were valid." 

Further on, Mr. Quincy granted that there is always 
some objection to be raised to any extension of the func- 
tions of the State; but that the question, he thought, 
should be judged on the grounds of expediency. As 
to the private right of the citizen, he questioned 
whether our law has not adopted the contrary theory, 
that is, that the State has the first claim upon the child ; 
takes the child and insists that it shall go to school. 
This question was not raised as a new question by this 
bill; it is raised by the statutes of Massachusetts, as 
they have been for a long time, and that the burden is 
on Mr. Donnelly to show why we should give up our 
adopted policy. 

Mr. Donnelly: "If anything has crept into the 
statutes which has a tendency towards the exercise of 
State interference on plea of necessity or expediency, 
is it necessarily advisable that we should proceed 
further in that direction?" 

Mr. Quincy : "The question ought to be considered 
upon its merits. I regret very much, indeed, that this 
question has been made a religious question. Individu- 
ally I had not the slightest desire to bring it up as a 
religious question or as leveled against any particular 
religious faith at all. I regret very much that it has 
been made to assume that form. I should regret to see 
any unnecessary or additional friction between the 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 51 

members of the different denominations. I am free 
to say that the fact that this legislation would be so 
received and would be so understood by the members 
of a particular religious faith, is, in my judgment, one 
element to be considered by the committee in deciding 
whether it is advisable to place this legislation upon 
the Statute Book. There are considerations on both 
sides. President Eliot of Harvard University urged 
considerations upon the other side. The question is 
not a one-sided one. The bill was reported by the 
committee because they believed on the whole some- 
thing should be done to raise the standard of education 
in the private schools, whether coupled with religious 
instruction or not. In itself, it does not interfere with 
religious instruction." 

Mr. Quincy also admitted that there was no specific 
evidence offered to show that the instruction given in 
the private schools would not enable the children to 
exercise the suffrage and ballot honestly, intelligently 
and well, but suggested that the committee act not 
only upon the information presented, but upon belief. 
He disclaimed personal knowledge of the qualifications 
of the private schools. 

The Rev. Dr. Gordon favored the proposed law, 
and would have it apply to Protestant, Catholic, Irish, 
American, German, and French alike. 

Mr. Evans asserted parochial schools are established 
directly by the Pope for the purpose of teaching the 
heavenly Zion. 

Dr. Thomas. D wight thought it striking, in view of 
the evidence, how little it amounts to. He continued : 



52 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

"1 believe this law as unjust as it is absurd, and absurd 
as it is unjust, even if it were enforced kindly and 
fairly; but there is great reason to believe that in 
many instances it would not be enforced fairly and 
kindly. The parents of the children in the private 
schools will feel that the object is to oppress them. It 
will do injustice and will be effectual in getting up 
great religious irritation. Mr. Quincy, in answer to 
a question, said the schools would have to be visited 
once a year. The bill recites that they are to be visited 
once a month, and any member of the State Board of 
Education and any agent shall have the same authority 
to examine the private schools as the public schools; 
they are to see how much is taught. It seems to me 
that it is for me to say where my children shall go to 
school and not for the Government. That is a right I 
claim. My ancestors were in the Revolution, and I 
wonder what they would have thought of this legisla- 
tion which puts this power in the hands of the school 
committee. It seems to me that this is eminently 
unwise, eminently unjust and contrary to the Ameri- 
can spirit of fair play and equal rights. It is Russian 
and not American." 

T. W. McDonald, principal of the high school, 
Stoneham, suggested that the committee ought to con- 
sider how far they are going in this bill. "We can 
leave this thing safely in the hands of the people them- 
selves," he said. "I do not believe there is a private 
school in the State but that comes up to the State 
standard, if the State has a standard. If the schools 
are up to the standard there is no need of supervision. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 53 

If you supervise them then, of course, you give them 
a claim for a division of the school fund. If private 
schools can compete with us let them do it ; we ask for 
no favors. There is only one way you can injure us, 
that is by legislating private schools into popularity by 
adverse legislation." In answer to Mr. Evans' citation 
of the example of Prussia in taking entire charge of 
the schools, Mr. Donnelly reminded him that in Prussia 
denominational education is given, and Catholics get 
their share of the school money. Mr, McDonald said 
he wanted no such system here. 

Mr. Augustus D. Small, of the Lawrence Grammar 
School, South Boston : "This bill is the first attempt to 
control the education of the child; heretofore legisla- 
tion has been purely negative. This, of course, is the 
opening wedge, and the result will be complete mon- 
opoly by the State. I claim the right to dictate that 
my child shall be educated in such branches as I please. 
I believe this legislation is intended to take away that 
right, and says that my children must attend schools 
that are approved by the school committee. This 
law may be very well for the present generation, but 
in much less than fifty years from now the religious 
aspect will change. The passage of this law will 
create divisions in our communities, and it is a ques- 
tion whether it be wise to precipitate such an agitation." 

Asked by Mr. Dickinson, "Is it the duty of the 
State schools to give religious instruction?" Mr. 
Small replied: "It is not the duty of State schools to 
give religious education, therefore they are incomplete 
schools. I regret, sir, that my children must have a 



54 . DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

purely secular education in one place and an entirely 
religious education in another. I think it is an element 
left out. One of the cardinal ideas of the time is to 
send the whole boy to school. The highest kind of 
schools cannot be under State management. It is the 
spirit of our institutions to encourage private enter- 
prise; to encourage private schools." 

Farther on in the discussion he said: The public 
system heretofore has been purely negative, but by this 
measure money will have to be appropriated for sec- 
tarian purposes; that the public schools had adopted 
some of their best features from private schools; that 
no one can claim all excellence for the public schools. 
Leave the private school and the public school inde- 
pendent, and one will help the other. Tie them 
together and the speed of one will be the speed of the 
other. 

The third adjourned hearing was held on March 21. 

Secretary Dickinson, of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Education, was the first speaker, and said he 
was in favor of the provisions in the proposed bill 
requiring that the child should be able to read and write 
simple sentences before entering any employment, and 
that clothing should be furnished by the school com- 
mittee to pupils whose parents were unable to provide 
necessary clothing, but that he was not an advocate of 
that part of the bill requiring the inspection of private 
schools, and, on the contrary, was opposed to it, 
whether the inspection was by the State or the local 
authorities. "Let the law stand as it is," he said. "In- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 55 

stead of examining the schools, let us examine the 
children who are entering employment, to ascertain if 
they fulfil the conditions of existing statutes. Let the 
law already in force be executed, and devise some pre- 
scribed form of registration by which the public school 
authorities may know where the children are." 

Asked by Mr, Donnelly if he knew anything of the 
condition of the parochial schools in the Common- 
wealth, he said he had never visited them. 

Mr. Donnelly : "You advocate bringing, as far as is 
compatible with private rights, all children in the sev- 
eral communities into the same schools, up to the age 
of fourteen or fifteen. Is not that seeking an ideal 
uniformity in children in social, political and moral 
views? Is it not an idea emanating from military or 
imperial forms of Government, and would it not tend 
to discourage individuality in the child and prevent its 
development ?" 

To which Mr. Dickinson answered that the pub- 
lic school, in his opinion, developed independence of 
thought ; but he would have the people think alike, and 
thus avert class divisions. Questioned further, he 
declared his agreement with President Eliot, of Har- 
vard, as to the inexpediency of State inspection of 
private schools. 

General Walker was the next speaker. He depre- 
cated hasty legislation. He said : "I do not believe that 
the people are yet sufficiently interested in this subject 
to give the best effect to legislation ; I believe it desir- 
able that the measure should come from the people. 
No matter how wise the measure, I believe it should 



56 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

go to the constituencies and should form the subject of 
discussion in the school districts. This is not a matter 
that needs to be discussed in a panic. The system 
which exists has existed for a long- time, and the 
dangers, if any, have existed for a long time. There- 
fore, it seems to me the farther the discussion is carried 
the better the object in view will be met and attained." 

General Walker wished further to submit to the 
committee the considerations arising from these ques- 
tions : What shall be the standard set for the private 
schools ? or what shall be the standard which the State 
will look to the private schools reaching? 

Now the bill demands that the same studies shall be 
pursued in the private as in the public schools, and the 
same thoroughness of work insisted upon. It may be 
said this is already the law; but it is proposed to 
change the law. It may be seriously questioned 
whether this is a point which the State can well take, 
or stand upon. The primary objects, which might 
almost be called police purposes — as they aimed to 
guard against ignorant and corrupt voters — of the in- 
stitution of the public school system by the Common- 
wealth, were : First, that the child should not suffer as 
an industrial agent by reason of the want of education, 
and second, that the State should not suffer injury 
by reason of the want of proper training. 

The speaker deprecated the loading of the system 
with studies which never would have entered into the 
original reason for its institution. If the Common- 
wealth compel the private schools to a certain standard, 
it should be the standard of necessary things. He 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 57 

adverted to the cramming process in the public schools, 
and the consequent severe tax on the nervous force of 
the children. "Suppose," he said, "there were schools 
for the 5,000 poor children in the city of Boston, 
private schools which instead of five hours of cram- 
ming ordinarily prescribed should devote only three 
hours to reading, writing and ciphering simply, and 
devote two hours a day to some manual training, as 
carving and weaving and other means of earning a 
living. Yet you would forbid private schools from 
doing it. In Philadelphia there now exists weaving 
schools, but by this law this would be forbidden. Now 
it seems to me those two modifications of the private 
schools are desirable, instead of setting up the standard 
of the public schools which is overwrought. I have 
lately been engaged in making a very considerable 
reduction in the amount of arithmetic taught in the 
public schools and the instruction in other branches of 
knowledge requires some revision, yet you would re- 
quire the private schools to throw overboard the indus- 
trial features because they cannot otherwise reach the 
standard of the schools cramming arithmetic, etc." 

General Walker called attention to this feature of 
the bill, that the State ascertain by inspection whether 
the private schools come up to a certain standard, and 
to provide that the teacher be certified ; and asked : "If 
the private schools do reach the same standard, is it 
just to require that the teachers should be certified?" 
He said in conclusion : "In my judgment there should 
be very long and deliberate consideration before so 
great a departure is made from the established methods 



58 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

of dealing with private schools. The fact that the 
State has a right is the very last reason why we should 
do it. I would like to see an inquiry, town by town, 
whether the great mass of private schools are doing- 
justice to the children in their charge; if, as a matter 
of fact, these scholars are being prepared for citizens, 
it seems to me to say that we have the right is the 
worst reason in the world and the poorest reason in 
the world, and the second poorest reason is that it is 
logically involved in something we have already done. 
The best reason is, is it best ? Is there any real griev- 
ance? Let the subject be commended to the people's 
attention. Let the fact, if it is one, that it will neces- 
sarily excite much religious opposition, have its fair 
weight and no more, and if necessary for the Com- 
monwealth to do it, the Commonwealth will do it and 
stand by it." 

In answer to the chairman's question, General 
Walker said he would favor the registration of private 
schools. He thought it as reasonable as requiring 
physicians to register the birth of children, and requir- 
ing the registration of marriages. In answer to Mr. 
Donnelly's question whether, since there are in the 
Commonwealth 100,000 French-Canadians attached 
to their language and customs, is it wise and proper to 
have this provision of law in the statutes, that no 
instruction shall be in any language except English ? 

"I think if you had an Italian or French Canadian 
child, if you were considering the best good of that 
child, you would say, give instruction in his own lan- 
guage, French or Italian, and would not waste time 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 59 

in trying to teach English or subjects in a language 
he did not understand, but I should push him forward 
just as soon as he became capable of studying in that 
language." He accounted the acquisition of the 
English language "secondary, but very important, and 
by no means to be sacrificed." 

Emory J. Haynes, pastor of Tremont Temple, said 
it was a cause of apprehension and alarm to have so 
large a percentage of the youth, amounting to 40,000 
or 50,000, educated in schools beyond the supervision 
of the State, and that the question of state inspection of 
private schools has the sympathy of the conscience 
of Massachusetts, and of its inhabitants, especially 
those whose lineage is American. 

The Reverend Dr. Bartol began by stating that he 
is a Protestant of the Protestants, and a poor radical 
and heretic at that, with a feeling on his part that 
religion should be taught in all the schools. He would 
object to the instruction of any particular denomina- 
tion of its own forms and articles and its particular 
creed in any school which comes under the authority 
of the Commonwealth and derives pecuniary support 
from the Commonwealth. He would not allow that 
religion is identical with any Catholic or Protestant 
form, but he continued : ""/ think there is tremendous 
power in the accusation that our schools are Godless. 
They are worth not an atom to me in making good 
citizens if Godless. This Commonwealth was founded 
upon the ground of piety and respect to the Supreme 
Being, but what do I see? Daily as I walk the streets 
and suburbs of Boston, what is indeed a cause for 



6o DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

apprehension and alarm — the irreverence of youth — to 
my mind the most alarming system of the time. I 
would rather send my child to a Roman Catholic, to a 
Mohammedan, to a Greek institution where the fear 
of God was taught than where that idea was left out. 
I would not give a penny to the most accomplished 
teacher who had it not in his heart to require this 
reverent feeling. ... It seems to me that this lack of 
a feeling of reverence has produced in this country in 
political life an intellectual monster, a man of great 
ability in Congress, at the bar, but lacking in senti- 
ment. I quite agree with George Washington : 'You 
cannot teach any satisfactory manners or morals with- 
out religion.' Morality and manners, as we call them, 
are the blossoms of piety. I don't know how it is to be 
done; I do not believe in a mere intellectual education. 
We cannot teach the youth to be good citizens, there- 
fore, if the school is Godless. If we have proceeded 
on a false assumption, then the way is to make them 
Godly. We are an unmannerly race, we ought to be 
more courteous; courtesy between man and man I 
would have the children taught. Courtesy always 
implies reverence to the Unseen One. I do not think 
that any atheist, if he carry his atheism to the extent 
of denying and throwing insult upon the Supreme 
Being, can be courteous, because courtesy implies rev- 
erence. Therefore, I am glad of all the religion which 
can get into the parochial schools. I should be de- 
lighted if you could get as much or more into the 
public schools." 

The Rev. Edward Everett Hale : "If I had the honor 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 6i 

of serving on the committee, I should have urged that 
no child before fourteen years old should be allowed 
to enter a factory. I am a trustee of the oldest private 
school in the state, the Roxbury Latin School, with 
two exceptions the oldest in the country. It was 
founded in 1745 by the people of the town of Roxbury, 
but maintained as a private school ever since. As a 
trustee of a private school I know just what the bill 
will be. The bill attempts a great deal more than it 
meant to attempt, if I understood Mr. Quincy. We 
will gladly furnish a registration of our boys annually 
and make that registration good from time to time, 
but it will be rather hard to make an examination once 
a month. We are on the most cordial terms with the 
public schools. We keep so good a school that Rox- 
bury never kept a public school for the teaching of 
Latin and Greek. We therefore have very close rela- 
tions with the public school system, but if we are 
obliged to send all our teachers to be examined by the 
school committee of Boston those relations might be 
changed. We have always appointed our own teachers, 
and the reputation of the school has been very high. 
There are some persons who say it is the best in 
America. I think it is. We have never found the 
need of inspection. If we need inspecting, with all 
courtesy to the present school committee of Boston, 
I should say that in matters of education the board of 
trustees of the Roxbury High School are a body of 
men to whom the people would go with as much readi- 
ness as to the school committee of the city of Boston. 
It would be a hardship and inconvenience. It would 



62 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

certainly be humiliating. If the committee would 
simply say that nobody should go into the factory 
under the age of fourteen it would not cripple the fac- 
tories, and you would get out of your difficulty. I am 
going from this place to teach a class in history ; under 
this bill am I going down to the school committee for 
a license to teach a class in my vestry ? I can conceive 
that under such a statute they could make us no end 
of difficulty and nonsense. We should not like to find 
ourselves under the government of a school committee 
chosen by a board of politicians and liquor dealers; 
this thing works both ways; you might have school 
committees who would make any amount of difficulty 
for Protestants and school committees who would 
make any amount of difficulty for Catholics." 

Asked if there were pupils in his school who came 
under this bill, he answered : 

"Yes. I am opposed to child labor at all, and I wish 
that the limit was sixteen instead of fourteen, but 
your committee are too timid. If you gentlemen would 
only have the pluck to say that no child shall work 
under fourteen, the whole thing would be settled, and 
that is what you have got to do, in my opinion." 

The incidents of the fourth hearing, on March 28, 
included the remarkable defense of citizen rights 
against bigotry by Colonel Thomas Wentworth 
Higginson, of Cambridge. 

Those favoring the bill being invited to address the 
committee first, the Rev. Mr. Leyden, who announced 
himself as a member of the Clarendon Street Baptist 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 63 

Church, said : "I am in favor of this bill. I received 
my education in a parochial school in the state of New 
York, and I propose to speak from experience and 
facts not down upon the page of the text-books given 
to the children in the parochial schools. Protestants 
are at a disadvantage in arguing this question, owing 
to this teaching not being printed. The teachings of 
the parochial schools, as I have reason to know, are 
dangerous to the United States of America and 
especially to Massachusetts. If the Roman Catholic 
sends his child to the parochial schools it is not from 
choice. The Church of Rome has intimidated him by 
withholding the Sacraments from him if he dares to 
send his children to the public schools." 

The Rev. Mr. Leyden was branching out into a 
tirade against the Catholic Church in general, where- 
upon Mr. Donnelly suggested that what the doctrines of 
the Catholic Church are did not seem to be germane 
to the question under consideration, and the chair- 
man coinciding with Mr, Donnelly, suggested that the 
speaker confine himself to the bill before the committee. 
Mr. Leyden resumed on the old lines, but was again 
called to order, whereupon he asserted that the Catholic 
Church is aiming to get control of the public school 
system in order to corrupt the citizenship and that it 
aims to divide the American people. 

The Rev. James M. Gray, rector of the Reformed 
Episcopal Church, on Dartmouth Street, Boston, fav- 
ored the bill as necessary to secure to all the children 
that modicum of education and that immunity from 
hard labor which the State feels they should have. 



64 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

He further favored it as necessary to secure to the 
children instruction true to the facts of history and 
requisite to fit them for the responsibilities of free gov- 
ernment. In his opinion it is a broader issue than an 
issue between Protestants and Roman Catholics, for 
there are Protestant Episcopal parochial schools as well 
as Roman Catholic, and there are some Germans at 
the West who propose having their national schools. 
"We do not know what our children are being taught 
in some of these schools," he continued, "any more 
than we do in some of the Roman Catholic parochial 
schools." 

The Rev. M. R. Deming, Baptist Tabernacle, Bos- 
ton, favored State inspection, on the grounds, first, that 
private schools are, as a whole, and will always be 
inferior to the public. He studied in a private school 
himself, and found he had been swindled. He believed 
the public schools to be the bulwark of our liberties and 
the bulwark of our happiness. 

Colonel T. W. Higginson, of Cambridge, lecturer 
and author, who followed, said : 

"I am here to speak for nobody except myself, 
except so far as I may say something for a class who 
seem to have no representation here, the people of the 
State who are interested in education for itself, and 
not as a mere fighting ground between Catholic en- 
thusiasts on the one hand and Protestant enthusiasts 
on the other. I came here to discuss this matter solely 
upon secular grounds, upon educational grounds per se ; 
I came here not expecting to allude to this religious 
question. . . . Mr. Chairman, I took my first lessons 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 65 

in religious liberty when I stood by my mother's side 
and watched the burning of the Ursuline Convent in 
Charlestown, a Catholic convent burned by a Protes- 
tant mob ; I took my second lesson when in the Know- 
nothing days I saw procession after procession of 
Protestants march through the streets then occupied 
by Irish Catholics, with torchlights and having every 
form of insulting banner in their hands, and making 
every effort to taunt those Catholics out of their 
houses and bring them into a street fight which, from 
the self-control of those naturalized citizens, they 
failed to do. I hope never to live to see the renewal 
of those questions, for if those scenes were to be 
renewed it would not be necessary to go farther than 
this room to find those who would lead the mob. 

"I wish to state two strong points against any such 
bill as this, which points present themselves to me, not 
as an expert in education, but as one having spent a 
large part of his life upon school committees, three 
years on the State Board of Education and two years 
on this committee. The two points which seem to 
me fatal to any attempt at public inspection of private 
schools, beyond the simplest obtaining of statistics and 
a mere guarantee that children are taught to read and 
write, are these : That the State provides no body of 
men who can possibly carry out the provisions of this 
bill if it is enacted, and in the second place, if there 
were such a body of men, and if the bill could be 
carried out, it would practically kill all experiments, 
m the way of education, which are always made, from 
5 



66 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

the necessity of the case, in private and not in public 
schools. 

"The course for the State of Massachusetts to pursue 
is so to use its school committees and its superinten- 
dents that it shall make the public schools models and 
drive the private schools ofif the track because the 
public schools are better. If you want to settle this 
question just issue a circular letter to the school com- 
mittees of the State. Don't ask whether they are 
Catholics or Protestants, don't ask whether they think 
well of Leo X. or the Medici family, but ask them: 
Would you be prepared to discharge that duty for the 
coming year? I would risk the whole thing on the 
answer you would get from the school committees, as 
it would throw great additional duty upon a body of 
men who cannot discharge the duties already upon 
them. 

"The question between private schools and public 
schools is not a question of religion. It is an educa- 
tional question. I stand as a Protestant of the Protes- 
tants to speak for the opportunity of the private school 
to do its work, and for the parent who wishes to edu- 
cate his child in the private school to do so. It is the 
right of the parent, within the necessary limits which 
this state has fixed as a minimum of training, to choose 
his own school; and any attempt to invade what is 
equally the right of Protestant or Catholic by raising 
a hurrah and bringing together an audience to applaud 
every sentiment of religious narrowness will never 
prevail with the Massachusetts Legislature or with the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts." 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 67 

Asked by Dr. Gracy, of Salem, if the State had not 
a right to interfere, if it were convinced that the 
historical teaching in private schoob is false, Colonel 
Higginson ansv^ered, "Heaven forbid!" He thought, 
hovi^ever, that the State might lav^ fully see that the 
children were taught to read and write, even though 
there might be some hardship. Every inch that went 
beyond reading and writing was dangerous. 

Mr. Donnelly : "You will remember that there is no 
provision of law for the purpose of ascertaining results 
so far as the education of the child is concerned. The 
law has gone only so far as to require attendance a cer- 
tain number of weeks at school, but whether the child 
has acquired a certain sum of knowledge the State dis- 
regards. Now, as a method of dealing with this 
question, it has been suggested, first, that the school 
committee itself make the examination of the child, 
and, secondly, that the certificate of the pastor of the 
parochial school should be received on the theory that 
it ought to be reasonably conclusive; thirdly, that the 
master's or teacher's certificate should be received. 
These are three methods of avoiding the question of 
State inspection." 

Colonel Higginson thought that of the methods 
suggested the only practical one is the system of indi- 
vidual examination of those who wished to be employed 
in any factory. 

Asked by Mr. McEttrick : Would not that obviate the 
necessity of an approval of the school? Would it 
make any difference whether the school was inspected 
or not? Colonel Higginson said : 'T do not know that 



68 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

it would, but I think the right of inspection should 
be retained." 

The final hearing, before a large assemblage, took 
place on the following day, which that year was Good 
Friday, 

The Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol made a few brief com- 
ments on the views expressed by Colonel Higginson 
at the Tuesday hearing, and then Mr. Leyden, who 
spoke at the same hearing, asked permission to speak 
again, and began by flourishing in his hand some 
scapulars, medals, and other Catholic emblems, declar- 
ing that Catholics were carried away by such stuff to 
the exclusion of instruction in the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity. He then read an extract from the forty-fifth 
proposition of the Syllabus, declaring vehemently that 
the teachings of the Catholic Church on the question 
of public schools was monstrous, and tended to render 
her members disloyal to the institutions of the State, 
and dangerous citizens. He repeated what he said 
before about his imperfect training in the Brothers' 
School in Jay Street, Brooklyn, and sweepingly 
asserted that the instructors in the parochial school 
were entirely unfit to perform the work assigned 
them, and sent the children out from their schools 
imperfectly trained and wholly unfitted for the duties 
of life. Mr. Donnelly questioned Mr. Leyden in ref- 
erence to the catechetical instruction given Catholic 
children, and directed his attention to the common ver- 
sion of the Catholic catechism, a copy of which Mr. 
Donnelly held in his hand and read from while interro- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 69 

gating Mr. Leyden. Mr. Leyden first professed not 
to recognize the catechism, but subsequently admitted 
that the children were taught from it in their religion, 
yet that whatever was taught them they were subse- 
quently made to unlearn in the confessional. Mr. 
Donnelly then questioned Mr. Leyden in reference to 
what the catechism in use teaches of obedience to 
parents, to magistrates, and to all in lawful authority 
under the State. Mr. Leyden, while reluctantly admit- 
ting that Catholic children received such instruction, 
asserted that it was negatived by later instructions 
from the priests. 

Mr. Charles Carleton Coffin said that the State 
should have a knowledge of the whereabouts of all its 
children, as to whether they were being fitted to become 
good citizens. Visitation of private schools com- 
mended itself to his judgment; but, when it came to 
assuming control of all the private schools, that should 
be considered with care; he would not crush out the 
private schools. As far as parochial schools were con- 
cerned he did not think this community ought to go 
into a warfare on the question of schools. In reply to 
Mr. McEttrick, of the committee, who asked him if he 
did not think the result which he desired could be 
secured under the present law, that is, outside of the 
matter of registration, Mr. Coffin replied in the affirm- 
ative. 

Mr. George P. Richardson, of Boston, asked Mr. 
Coffin whether he would have the schools controlled 
by the State or b}^ the secret congregation of the in- 
quisition. Mr. Coffin replied, "By neither." 



70 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

The Rev. William Bradley spoke of the primary 
right of the child to education, and said the State 
should furnish it. He would oppose sectarianism in 
the schools. 

Mr. Michael Molay made some remarks about pri- 
vate schools in the north of Ireland. The chairman 
called the gentleman's attention to the fact that the 
quesion under consideration was one of schools in the 
United States. As nearly as could be gathered from 
Mr. Molay's rambling remarks, he should have ap- 
peared on the affirmative side. 

The Rev. Thomas Magennis, Jamaica Plain, spoke 
next: 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — Many things 
have been said concerning parochial schools in the 
course of this hearing by those who advocate the pass- 
age of this bill, which, on being questioned, they have 
been compelled to admit were said without any positive 
knowledge of the parochial school system in this State. 
I have been the director and superintendent of a paro- 
chial school in Jamaica Plain for the past fifteen years. 
Previous to that time I was a member of the school 
committee of the town of West Roxbury. I beg leave, 
with this experience in connection with both systems 
of education, to present for your consideration my 
views on the bill now before you. 

The State has a perfect right to prevent illiteracy. 
All men acknowledge this. None wish it more earn- 
estly than Catholics. But we maintain that the State 
has no right to go beyond this and say where or how 
parents shall educate their children. If they are illiter- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 71 

ate, let the State supervise their education till the 
stigma of illiteracy is removed and everybody will look 
on approvingly. There are many intelligent people, 
however, who believe that the mind of a child is forced 
to undue effort if it is compelled to perform mental 
work continuously during its tender years. These 
people advocate that children should be placed under 
the care of tutors and governesses, who for a few hours 
a day should have charge of the children, and teach 
them gradually the elementary branches of useful 
knowledge, such as to distinguish numbers, call things 
by their proper names, acquire a correct method of 
speech, and eventually read and write simple sentences. 
Can the State interpose its laws and say to these peo- 
ple, "This is all wrong ! You must do as we do in the 
public schools, and follow the course of study pre- 
scribed by law." Their only reply would be, "If our 
children are growing up illiterate, you may enforce 
your laws to prevent it. But apart from this their 
education must and shall be planned by us. If they 
are well instructed in the rudiments of learning, they 
comply with all constitutional laws, and we may decide, 
without consulting the State, to devote their time to 
the study of modern languages, music and drawing 
or painting, to the exclusion of geography, algebra, or 
grammar, if we so elect. The State has no right 
to insist upon the study of hygiene and physiology any 
more than it has to demand proficiency in the theory 
of evolution or fluency in speaking a foreign tongue. 
If then, private schools, parochial or others, are such 
that the charge of illiteracy cannot be brought against 



72 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

their pupils, why should the State interfere with either 
their teachers or their studies? We do not admit, we 
cannot, for it is false, that parochial schools as a rule 
are inferior to the average public school, and we resent 
and repudiate the charge with a most emphatic and 
indignant denial. It seems, sir, to be taken for granted 
that the public school, from the very fact of being such, 
is faultless. 

Listen to what Charles Francis Adams, Jr., said of 
the schools of the town of Quincy in 1873. In the 
examination of the public schools of Norfolk county, 
including such thriving and intelligent communities 
as Brookline, Dedham and Quincy, the average of ex- 
aminations was only fifty-seven per cent. Mr. Adams, 
speaking of the examination in his own town of 
Quincy, said : "The result was deplorable. The schools 
went to pieces. When the test of reading at sight was 
applied, the result was simply bewildering." Again, 
in the report of the Quincy schools of that year, he 
says : "The pupils of the Quincy schools could neither 
speak nor spell their own language very perfectly, nor 
read and write it with that ease and elegance which is 
desirable." And yet, gentlemen, there was then no 
thought of special legislation to remedy this state of 
affairs. Even the secretary of the State Board of 
Education was not then alarmed. With the figures 
before him of fifty-seven per cent, as an average of 
the Quincy schools, he says : "This examination shows 
an average of excellence that ought to encourage the 
most zealous and nervous friend of our Massachusetts 
system of public schools." Gentlemen, let me assure 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 73 

you that if such a state of affairs was found to exist in 
any one of our parochial schools, that the average per- 
centage of scholarship was only fifty-seven, the super- 
intendent of that school would soon have his teachers 
either removed or so improved in their methods of 
teaching that the average of excellence should be at 
once brought to a far higher percentage. If the sec- 
retary of the State Board of Education considered that 
a favorable showing for any school, then are all our 
parochial schools ipso facto up to the required standard 
as set by him. We have never, gentlemen, been 
obliged to take refuge behind such figures as these, 
nor would we ever consider them a creditable showing 
for any parochial school. 

This hearing, gentlemen, has demonstrated the fact 
in the most positive manner that all educators are not 
so wedded to the public school system as to give it 
their unqualified endorsement. Witness the president 
of Harvard University, the president of the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology, the Rev. Edward Everett 
Hale of the Roxbury Latin School, Mr. Ladd of the 
Chauncey Hall School, Rev. Dr. Bartol, Colonel Hig- 
ginson and others, none of them Catholics, and yet 
all of them advocating fair play for private and 
parochial schools, believing them to be equal and 
sometimes superior to public schools. ... It is not I, 
but the venerable Dr. Cyrus Bartol, whose wise sayings 
have for so many years been followed unhesitatingly 
by hosts of admirers in Boston and elsewhere, who says 
that the public schools are a failure because they do not 
give what they claim to give — a thorough education — 



74 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

which, in his estimation, cannot exist without the 
teaching of morality and religion. They were not 
always so. It is a fact that the founders of the Ameri- 
can Republic, the framers of the Bill of Rights of the 
State of Massachusetts, of most of the New England 
states, and of many of the western states colonized by 
emigrants from the East, notably the state of Ohio, 
where so many flourishing schools and colleges exist 
to-day, all believed that religion could not with safety 
be divorced from secular education. And they ordained 
that the ideas and practices familiar to parents in 
churches should be conserved in the schools to which 
they intrusted their children. The Catholic Church 
maintains the same belief. The religion which is good 
for the parents in the church is good for the children 
in the school. A republican form of government, less 
than any other, can endure whose children are edu- 
cated in schools where no religion is taught. The 
fundamental idea of the Puritan fathers was religious 
freedom, says Bishop Coxe. In the church, said he, 
and in the school, add we. And it is to preserve Chris- 
tianity among the people that we desire to establish 
our own schools. "And when our Christianity dis- 
appears," adds the same bishop, in warning tones, "our 
national estate must perish with it, and the America of 
Washington and the century that came after him will 
perish from the land." Knowledge does not lessen 
vice; it often increases it. We must direct the con- 
science and guide the will if we desire to restrain pas- 
sions and evil inclinations. Virtue and morality, to 
become a habit of life, need the teaching and the dis- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 75 

cipline of the school, in addition to that of the church 
and the family. And it is just here that the two sys- 
tems of schools differ. The public schools do not 
teach religion. They cannot. They are forbidden by 
law to do so. The teachers dare not introduce the 
subject of religion, and if they dared, the majority of 
them would teach our children (if they spoke their 
own opinions) that the Catholic religion is false. It 
is this absence of teaching of Catholic belief at school 
that makes us anxious to have our own schools, 
wherein we may make sure that these truths shall be 
taught. We believe that the absence of religious 
teaching and the consequent absence of moral training 
is injurious to the community at large. "Whatever 
strikes at Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolu- 
tion of civil government," said Chancellor Kent, of 
the Supreme Court of New York, "because Christian- 
ity is part of the common laws of the State." 

Therefore it is, gentlemen, that we object to this 
bill, because, whether intended or not, it manifestly 
legislates against our schools. You might as well tell 
us priests what we may legally preach in our pulpits as 
tell us what we must teach in our schools. We deny 
most emphatically that the State has a right to take the 
place of the parent in the matter of the education of 
children. This is a pagan idea. The pagans looked 
upon the State as a sort of divinity, and believed that 
it could regulate the consciences of men. But we live 
in a Christian community, and Christ rules the heart 
and conscience. He taught us to pay allegiance to the 



76 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

civil authorities, but never, in so doing, to renounce 
our allegiance to Him. 

It is quite evident to an unprejudiced mind, Mr. 
Chairman, that the object of the advocates of this bill 
is to accomplish either the improvement or the suppres- 
sion of the parochial school system. Judging from the 
expressions made use of at previous hearings, it is 
their suppression that is most desired, because none of 
the advocates of the bill could bring forward any proofs 
that the parochial schools of this State were inferior 
to the public schools. In fact, they were obliged to 
acknowledge that they knew nothing about them. Nor 
could it be inferred from the statements made by the 
advocates of this bill that even were they convinced 
that parochial schools were equal to the public schools, 
they would be approved or sustained, or even tolerated. 
An attack has been made here against the Catholic 
Church and its disciplinary laws, totally regardless of 
the standard of its schools, whether they be equal or 
inferior to the public schools. 

I quite agree with Colonel Higginson, who spoke at 
the last hearing, when he said that the State had no 
right to officially inspect private schools, except so far 
as to ascertain that a certain number of pupils attend 
them with a certain degree of regularity, and that 
they are taught to read and write, which is the pre- 
requisite for qualification as a voter, and which the 
State, under existing laws, has a perfect right to 
demand. Gentlemen, I deny the right of the State to 
enter my school for the purpose of examination. I 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL -/y 

am arguing, bear it in mind, for the principle which is 
involved. 

When the time comes that the State shall have 
this right to demand an investigation into the 
method and system of imparting knowledge in our 
schools, we will be prepared to show to the public, by 
the courses of study followed in them, that they differ 
very little, if at all, from the courses of study pursued 
in the public schools. Our aim shall ever be to make 
our schools the equal of the public schools, and sur- 
pass them if we can. It is our earnest desire, not as 
our untruthful antagonists say, to attack the public 
schools, but to see that in our schools instruction in all 
branches of needful secular knowledge be joined to 
instruction in religion and morality. 

The Catholics of this State are contributing thou- 
sands of dollars annually for their schools. If they 
did not feel the necessity for them they would not 
contribute so generously towards their erection and 
maintenance. They are in the truest sense of the word 
the people's schools. Can the State also legislate to 
prevent their building them? Is there any limit to its 
power? These people are recognized as intelligent 
enough to cast a ballot as to who shall govern them 
and frame their laws, and surely are intelligent enough 
also to select the manner and method of the education 
of their children. There is too little religion in the 
world to-day. Men scoff at it and ridicule it. It 
would be wise for the State to applaud rather than 
censure any religious denomination that would make 
it an essential part of its duty to institute and carry 



78 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

on schools where the moral man and woman is to be 
developed and perfected as well as the intellectual. 
All good citizens should lay aside bigotry and senti- 
mentality and look at this question just as it is. If 
they do so, and if they have the welfare of this State 
at heart, they will encourage us in the work we have 
undertaken to shield our people from unbelief and 
infidelity, and make of the boys and girls who are 
growing up around us, by means of a thorough re- 
ligious as well as secular education, men and women 
whose Christian lives will add to the glory and renown 
of the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

Mr. Charles F. Donnelly began by thanking the 
committee, on behalf of those whom he represented, 
for the eminent courtesy extended throughout; and 
reminded his auditors that by a remarkable coinci- 
dence the hearing took place on a remarkable anniver- 
sary — an anniversary in which the whole Christian 
world is concerned, the day on which the Great Teach- 
er and Educator of mankind died on the cross for 
man's regeneration. He continued: "The discussion 
at these hearings has centered in the question whether 
or not the Catholics of this Commonwealth are en- 
deavoring to inculcate views in opposition to those 
which Christ himself taught regarding the duties and 
obligations of subjects and citizens. This is a Chris- 
tian Commonwealth. The body of the people of the 
State profess the Christian religion; I do not know of 
any religious denomination in this Commonwealth that 
inculcates immorality; I do not know of any religious 
denomination that teaches anything in subversion of 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 79 

order or morality ; I know that it has been said by cer- 
tain persons present that the Catholic Church within 
this Commonwealth does teach defiance of the State 
and disobedience of the laws; to obey one who lives 
outside of its limits and outside of the limits of the 
United States. A Catholic of the Catholics, I declare 
that these statements are absolutely and unqualifiedly 
false. Every intelligent Catholic has this text to guide 
him, given by Christ himself : 'Render unto Caesar the 
things that are Caesar's, and render unto God the 
things that are God's,' and there the line is drawn 
between the State on the one hand and the Church on 
the other." Mr. Donnelly stated that his own early 
education was received chiefly in Protestant private 
schools, and that he had had all his life long sufficient 
intercourse with Protestants to enable him to take as 
broad a view as any; but the Church herself taught 
him his duty to his neighbor. He cited from the 
Catechism used in Catholic schools the summary of 
the commandments and the definition of the neighbor 
whom we are commanded to love as ourselves, as 
"mankind of every description, without exception of 
person, even those who injure us and differ from us 
in religion." 

The speaker proved the absurdity of the assertions 
that the Church promotes ignorance, and that Catholics 
are disloyal, by citing, and with Protestant testimony, 
the incomparable services of the Church to education, 
and the conspicuous part which good Catholics had in 
founding the Government under which we live. "Our 
position here," he continued, "is that the State should 



8o DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

not interfere with private scHcmdIs ; that the question is 
a question for the conscience of the individual. The 
doctrine of the CathoHc Church is simply this : that if 
the faith or the morals of the child be endangered by- 
sending the child to any given school, be it public or 
private, it is the duty of the parent to remove the child 
from that school and place it in another one where its 
morals and faith will not be endangered." 

Mr. Donnelly refuted Mr. Ley den's attempt to con- 
firm by an extract from the 45th proposition of the 
Syllabus his statement that the Catholic bishops of 
this country advocate the suppression of the public 
school system, and arrogate to themselves the method 
of instruction which should be pursued by the State, 
by reading the extract itself : 

"The exclusive control of the public schools in which 
the youth of any country or State are educated may 
not, and must not, appertain to the civil power, nor 
belong to it to such a degree that no other authority 
shall be recognized as having any right to interfere 
in the discipline of the schools, the arrangement of the 
studies, the conferring of degrees, and in the choice 
and approbation of the teachers. 

"Here the Church simply insists that the exclusive 
control of the State schools for the education of youth 
shall not be exercised by the civil power. Our con- 
tention in this controversy goes farther than the Cath- 
olic Church would go in one respect, for as American 
citizens we claim the State has no right to interfere 
with the parent in the education of his child, unless 
the parent fails in the discharge of his natural duty 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 8i 

toward his child. Our controversy before the Legis- 
lature of Massachusetts is not on abstractions, it is for 
the preservation of the rights of the citizen; his coni- 
stitutional right to educate and train his child in such 
school or institution of learning and with such teacher 
as he deems safe and fit to trust his child without dicta- 
tion from any State, city or town authority whatever. 
Private schools are maintained by private funds and 
are private property. The teachers conducting them 
are in the exercise of a private right. The parent who 
sends his child to them is exercising his private right 
as a citizen. As such schools have no public grant, are 
not organized by the State, are not maintained and 
carried on by the State ; as they receive no State grant, 
nor State bounty, and are not furnished with public 
buildings or with books from the State, the State can 
have no property in such schools, and can have no 
claim to interfere with them. It is adroitly suggested 
that we should not object to State registration of the 
pupils in the private schools, as that would mean no 
interference, nor no official inspection nor visitation. 
My answer to it is that State registration of the pupils 
of the private schools would be simply inserting the 
thin end of the wedge for opening the way to further 
State intermeddling and interference, and for that 
reason, on behalf of the remonstrants, I object without 
any qualification whatever to State registration. State 
visitation, State inspection and State examination of 
the teachers of the private schools by any official what- 
ever, until the State shall provide for the support of 
such schools. 
6 



82 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

"It is idle to say that the bill before us originated in 
a desire to regulate the education of children in em- 
ployment at labor. The official figures will show that 
not 2,000 such children in the entire State would be 
affected by the bill or its provisions. It further appears 
officially by the returns of school committees that out 
of a total enrollment of 349,600 pupils, but 21,370 
were in public schools above the grade of the grammar 
school. A further analysis of school statistics will 
show that of those who enter the high school a very 
large number never graduate, and that less than one 
per cent, of the school population of the State complete 
the full course of the grammar and high schools. 
With such statistics before us it must appear clearly it 
is not the children who are employed at labor about 
whom the advocates of the bill are solicitous. Every 
person who has appeared and spoken before the com- 
mittee has practically admitted that the aim, scope and 
object of the bill is to authorize State interference with 
the private schools to gratify sectarian jealousy. 

"I believe, Mr. Chairman, that the hour for closing 
this hearing has been reached, and owing to the time 
occupied by others preceding me, I am limited to fifteen 
minutes to make the close for the remonstrants. Much 
must remain unsaid which I would have liked time 
to present to you, but the Legislature itself, when it 
comes to a discussion of the question, will have the 
views of all parties presented fully to it by our repre- 
sentatives." 



CHAPTER VI 

The hearings as recorded by Mr. Donnelly's stenog- 
rapher and later carefully edited as they appear in the 
preceding chapter by one who attended them, received 
much attention in the press, religious and secular. 

The able management of the case by Mr. Donnelly, 
and the high character and sound sense of the non- 
Catholic citizens who came at his request to defend 
the threatened rights of their Catholic friends, neigh- 
bors and oldtime fellow-soldiers resulted in the igno- 
minious defeat of the Private School Inspection Bill. 

The bigots were infuriated, and threw prudence to 
the winds. The Master of the EngHsh High School, of 
Boston, calumniated the Catholic doctrine of indul- 
gences before his class in history, in which there were 
many Catholic pupils. He stated that an indulgence 
was a permission to commit sin, sometimes bought 
with money; and, in illustration, declared that in a 
Catholic country a murderer brought before a judge 
^^•ould be promptly freed on showing his indulgence 
papers. 

When a Catholic pupil protested against this atro- 
cious slander, the master merely replied that he would 
hold to his own opinion, though the pupil was free to 
cherish his. 

The incident was made public, but in hope of bring- 
ing the teacher to a better mind and gentlemanly 

83 



84 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

reparation, his name and the name of the school 
were withheld. The forbearance was wasted. At 
the next opportunity the calumny was more offensively 
reiterated. The Rev. Theodore A. Metcalf, a convert 
priest of Puritan ancestry then rector of the Gate of 
Heaven Church, South Boston, now of Washington, 
D. C, lodged a formal complaint with the Boston 
school committee, and the master, when called to ac- 
count, fell back upon an ambiguous but offensive foot- 
note in Swinton's Outlines of History. The com- 
mittee on text-books, composed of three non-Catholics, 
the Rev. Dr. Duryea, G. B. Swasey and E. C. Carri- 
gan, and two Catholics, Dr. John G. Blake and Judge 
Joseph D. Fallon, pronounced Swinton's Outlines in- 
accurate generally, and ordered it dropped. The 
committee concurred in the recommendation, censured 
the master and ordered him transferred to some posi- 
tion in which his bigotry would not injure the service. 
It is worthy of note that no Catholic attempted to 
deprive this misguided teacher of his means of liveli- 
hood, nor entered into any criticism of the public 
schools themselves. 

Sunday after Sunday Tremont Temple, Music Hall, 
and other Protestant places of worship echoed to de- 
nunciation of all things Catholic. The incendiary 
sentiment, "Burn the parochial schools!" was re- 
ceived with enthusiasm. The Evangelical Alliance, 
long since passed away, made a formal petition to the 
School committee for the restoration of Swinton's 
"Outlines," and the reinstatement of the deposed 
master. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 85 

The respectable and refined members of the Protes- 
tant body had, of course, no part in these disreputable 
proceedings. Indeed, Professor Fisher of Yale Uni- 
versity publicly denounced as an abominable slander 
the assertion that the Catholic Church had ever 
granted licenses to commit crime, or taught that the 
forgiveness of sins could be bought with money. And 
he is everywhere regarded as a most eminent Protes- 
tant historian. 

The school controversy v/as introduced into busi- 
ness and politics. There were happenings grotesque 
enough for laughter, had the issues been less serious. 
On the whole, however, the situation was very like 
that which had prevailed in other sections of the coun- 
try more than fort)^ years previous, the new Am^erican 
Protective Association, made up mostly of foreigners, 
filling in Boston the place of the old "Know-nothing" 
body which the rest of the country was ashamed to 
remember. 

These "A. P. A.'s," as they were familiarly called, 
were presently reinforced by a secret society, "The 
Committee of One Hundred," pledged to war on all 
things Catholic. 

As the city elections drew near, the Protestant 
women w^ere induced to register in great numbers. 
The Catholic women, with but few exceptions, failed 
to register. The school committee elections resulted 
in the defeat of not only every Catholic candidate, but 
of every candidate supposed to favor fair treatment of 
Catholics. The Catholic representation on a school 
board of twenty-five was reduced to eight, although 



86 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

the population of the city was, at the time, more than 
half Catholic. 

Made bold by this success the bigots determined on 
another effort to destroy the Catholic schools. 

The new anti-Catholic school bill, (1889) still called 
an "Inspection" bill, was so virulent as to make that of 
the previous year appear tame and inconsequent by 
contrast. It not only assailed citizen and parental 
rights, but tried to enter the guarded domain of the 
individual's spiritual concerns, and stand between 
him and his spiritual adviser. 

The adherents of the Rev. Justin D. Fulton, of Dr. 
A. A. Miner, and some, though not all, of the promi- 
nent members of the Tremont Temple Baptist congre- 
gation stood behind this bill and tried to invest it with 
some respectability by securing ex-Governor John D. 
Long and Rodney Lund as their counsel. 

Archbishop Williams, still untroubled by the pro- 
posed legislation, rested confidently on the constitution 
of his native State, and again engaged the legal serv- 
ices of Mr. Donnelly. 

Thoughtful Protestants, as heretofore, made com- 
mon cause with the Catholics, and Nathan Matthews, 
subsequently mayor of Boston, appeared in behalf of 
certain private Protestant schools in remonstrance. 

The hearings were held in the Green Room of the 
State House before the Legislative Committee on 
Education. This committee consisted of Messrs. 
Campbell, of Suffolk; Howard, of Bristol; Stevens, of 
Worcester ; Bicknell and McEttrick, of Boston ; Kim- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 87 

ball, of Lynn; Davis, of Somerville; Shepard, of 
Sandisfield; Bond, of Fitchburg; Keane, of Holyoke; 
and Douglas, of Greenwich. 

Great as had been the interest in the hearings of 
the previous year, it paled into insignificance before 
the manifestations of popular concern in 1889. The 
Green Room and all its approaches were crowded, and 
if all the bigots in Boston were in noisy evidence, 
there was a fair proportion of scholarly and thoughtful 
Catholics and non-Catholics with eyes single to justice, 
yet not quite oblivious to the occasional absurdities of 
the situation. 

Mr. Long, for the petitioners, stated in substance, 
after some discussion, that the petitioners abandoned 
all proposed legislation except the following: 

1. Absolute right of inspection and supervision by the local 
school committee of every private school in which any children 
between the ages of eight and fourteen were being educated. 

2. That every parent and other person having control of a 
child able to attend school, and between the ages of eight and 
fourteen, and needing instruction, who would not cause such 
child to attend a public school, or a private school approved by 
the local school committee, would be subject to a penalty of 
twenty dollars, whether it appeared the child was receiving a 
good education elsewhere or not. 

3. That the local school committee shall only approve of a 
private school when the teaching therein is in the English lan- 
guage, in the branches provided by law, and the text-books used 
therein are such as may be approved by the committee, and when 
they are satisfied otherwise of the progress and condition of the 
school. 

4. That any person who shall attempt to influence any par- 
ent or other person having under his care or control any child 
between eight and fourteen years, to take such a child out of, 
or to hinder or prevent such child from attending a public or 



88 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

approved school by any threats of social, moral, political, re- 
ligious or ecclesiastical disability, or disabilities, or any punish- 
ment, or by any other threats, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding 
$i,ooo, and not less than $300, in each offense. 

The first person who spoke in behalf of the proposed 
measures rather abruptly disclosed the entire animus 
of the advocates of the bill, showing that their pro- 
fessed interest in the cause of education was only a 
cloak to disguise their attack against the Catholic body. 

D. A. Buckley, the first witness, stated that he pub- 
lished the Cambridge News. He declared himself in 
favor of the bill on the ground that the Catholics of 
Cambridge were coerced into sending their children to 
the parochial schools by Fathers Scully and Mundy. 
After this assertion, he went on to attribute to Father 
Scully all manner of violent denunciation of the public 
schools. He wanted the bill for the protection of the 
Catholics. Protestants can protect themselves. He 
said he had been educated in the Catholic cathedral 
school in Boston ; he gradually left the Church, and the 
Catholics have punished him to all the extent they 
could. He said : "They have invaded my printing 
office and told my foreman : 'You cannot stay there, 
you have got to leave the Church or leave Mr. Buck- 
ley's establishment.' " 

Chairman: "Wait; the line of argument is not in 
order." 

Here the Catholics, Messrs. Donnelly and McEttrick 
interposed, and begged that the witness be allowed to 
proceed and have full and free speech. 

Mr. Buckley continued, therefore, his attack on 
Father Scully, varied by denunciations of the Catholic 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 89 

Church as "a tnihtary despotism." Here is a speci- 
men : "I claim that fealty to the parochial school means 
treason to the State; you cannot feel it as one who has 
been on the inside of it; you cannot place yourself in 
the position of a Roman Catholic who has left the 
Church." 

Mr. Donnelly then examined the witness, who ad- 
mitted that all his testimony against Father Scully was 
on hearsay. He had never attended his church; and 
none of the persons on whose report he spoke were 
present. Father Mundy was reported by a shorthand 
reporter, whom Mr. Buckley had sent to take notes of 
his remarks, as saying that he held the keys of heaven 
and hell. 

Another effort towards orderly procedure was made, 
and Mr. Rodney Lund came forward in favor of the 
bill. He disclaimed antagonism to any religion or 
party, but appeared from a deep interest in the Com- 
monwealth and the conviction that the safety of the 
Republic depended on education being common and 
general and in the English language. He thought that 
the bill of Mr. Gracey covered the case, and to Mr. 
McEttrick he said that he assisted in drawing it. He 
did not propose to change the law relating to Bible 
reading in the public schools. The bill, he pleaded, 
referred only to children between eight and fourteen 
years. There should be no question of what the law 
is, and its enforcement should be put under the over- 
sight of the school committee. Mr. Lund said that by 
the proposed bill no private school can be opened to the 
school committee if the proprietors object, but such a 



90 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

school cannot be approved by the committee, and so 
will not entitle its pupils to the twenty weeks' provi- 
sion of the law. To Mr. McEttrick, Mr. Lund said 
that if a heavy penalty were imposed, as contemplated, 
there could be an escape by taking the poor debtor's 
oath. 

Mr. Donnelly, questioning Mr. Lund, asked if the 
State should interfere for the prevention of ecclesias- 
tical penalties. Mr. Lund said it should if that penalty 
was directed to procure a violation of State law. Mr. 
Lund further said that the right of the State was 
supreme over the rights of the parents as regards con- 
trol of the children. To Miss Elizabeth C. Putnam he 
said it is not without precedent that the State should 
interfere with a parent's government of his children. 

Ira A. Abbott, lawyer, member of the Haverhill 
school committee, related, from his point of view, the 
recent case of St. Joseph's parochial school in Haver- 
hill. In answer to Mr. McEttrick, whether he had 
repeatedly found schools in which there were no teach- 
ers competent to teach English to the French children, 
he said he had never heard complaint to that effect. 

Superintendent Albert L. Bartlett, of the Haverhill 
schools, said that if Judge Carter's ruling was correct 
we have no compulsory school law. He said there was 
a spirit to make New England a province of Quebec, 
its customs Canadian, and its language French. He 
then gave his version of the Haverhill school case, and 
the hearing adjourned till the following day. 

At the opening of the hearing on Thursday, March 
21, Mr. Long said that the people who wanted a 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 91 

change merely insisted upon two points, that children 
between eight and fourteen years shall have the funda- 
mentals of an English education in schools which are 
under the inspection of the public authorities, and that 
parents shall be free to send their children to such 
schools as they please, without any interference by 
ecclesiastical authority. 

Superintendent Bartlett. of Haverhill, resumed his 
discourse on St. Joseph's school, Haverhill, all through 
which a note of personal prejudice against Father 
Boucher was apparent. He commended, however, the 
St. James' parochial school in the same town. It is 
under the inspection of the local authorities, and its 
relations with them are harmonious. He granted, also, 
in regard to the French school, that the sub-committee 
were received courteously, and every opportunity 
afforded to learn the methods of instruction. As to 
the prosecution of parents under the truant law for 
sending their children to St. Joseph's after the com- 
mittee had refused to approve the school, Mr. Bartlett 
said they brought suit against six parents, selecting 
such as were not likely to suffer if a fine should be 
imposed. 

In reply to a request from Mr. Bicknell of the com- 
mittee, Mr. Bartlett read the decision of Judge Carter 
in the Haverhill case. 

To Mr. McEttrick, he said it was not only possible 
to educate French children in the English schools, but 
it is done. There is little difficulty. He would not 
advise a teacher to speak French at all in teaching the 



92 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

French children. They learn English more rapidly by 
not using French at all. 

Secretary Dickinson of the Board of Education 
favored this method, as the objective, the most ap- 
proved of modern methods of teaching a language. 
Further on, Mr. Bartlett admitted that he spoke on 
theory, never having taught French children himself. 

Mr. Bartlett read a letter of Father Boucher, written 
February 12, 1889, to the school committee, saying 
that he desired that the St. Joseph's school should 
receive the approval of the authorities, and asking what 
changes he should make. The rector had also said the 
same to him in conversation. 

To Chairman Campbell, Mr. Bartlett said there was 
a sub-committee on private schools, and that it had 
approved the St. James parochial school in Haverhill. 
Before approving a parochial school, the committee 
would observe whether the teaching was in the English 
language, whether the branches taught were those 
required, and whether the school was up to the neces- 
sary efficiency. 

Mr. Donnelly asked if the whole difficulty was not 
a personal matter between Mr. Bartlett and Father 
Boucher, and whether he had not given, the lie to 
Father Boucher, 

Mr. Bartlett denied that personalities were the cause 
of the difficulty. Of the 25,000 population of Haver- 
hill, some 2,500 to 3,000 are French Canadians. They 
have gradually increased during the last twelve or 
fifteen years. 

To Mr. Bicknell, he said that the French children 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 93 

under eight years of age were left in the pubhc schools, 
but over that age they were put in St. Joseph's school. 

City Solicitor Moody was the next witness, and 
said that the whole charge against the French parents 
was that their children did not attend the public schools 
twenty weeks a year. All matters of excuse, such as 
poverty or attendance at private schools, must be made 
by the defendant. The question was whether the de- 
fendant had proved an excuse. In the Haverhill case, 
the prosecution sought to prove that the instruction in 
St. Joseph's School was by no means equivalent to 
that furnished in public schools. But Judge Carter 
held that any means of education, however poor, if 
furnished in good faith, was a sujEBcient substitute for 
a public school education. If this is a good law, then 
the whole scheme of compulsory education might as 
well be abandoned. 

To Mr. Long, Solicitor Moody made some absurd 
deductions from Judge Carter's decision, but to Mr. 
Nathan Matthews, Jr., Mr. Moody said he thought 
it would be dangerous to go further than the 
present law in comipelling the attendance of children 
at the public school. He would leave the matter to the 
discretion of the school committee, with privileges of 
appeal to the Supreme Court. The matter should not 
be left in the hands of every police justice. He should 
prefer to amend the statute. 

To Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Moody said there was no 
doubt that the intention of the statute was to put the 
matter in the hands of the school committee. 

Mr. Donnelly asked whether the main thing was 



94 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

not to educate the children, and whether the question 
of language was not a subordinate matter, but Mr. 
Moody said the first object was to make good citizens, 
and it was necessary for that object that they learn 
English. 

He then gave vent to his personal prejudices in 
asserting that he had no doubt but that the object of 
this parochial school system was to hinder the children 
from becoming American citizens; that he distrusted 
Father Boucher, etc. Yet, in answer to Mr. Donnelly, 
he stated that many Canadians vote the Republican 
ticket, and he did not believe the French priests con- 
trolled the votes of their parishioners. Mr. Moody's 
most unjust remarks drew out applause from Mr. 
Bicknell and his following, which was checked by 
Chairman Campbell's saying that if the disorderly 
manifestations did not cease the sergeant-at-arms 
would remove the offenders from the room. 

To the committee Mr. Moody said that in Haverhill 
this was not at all a religious question, but a matter of 
American education. 



CHAPTER VII 

The third hearing was on April 3. Mr. Long said 
he had, so far as he represented any one, very Httle 
testimony that he cared to put in. He said the changes 
had been reduced to a few points, and urged that they 
were carrying out no new suggestion, but the original 
provision of the statute. He continued: 

"I would favor its amendment by putting in these 
words, 'or if such child for a like period of time has 
been otherwise taught in the branches taught in the 
public schools or has already acquired the same.' 
What we ask is that children, whether educated in 
private schools or in public, shall not be left to the 
vague expression 'otherwise provided with the means 
of education,' but shall have an education in the fund- 
amental branches required by the statutes. I asked 
Mr. Moody to draft a section covering the point he 
made. It seemed to me to be a reasonable suggestion 
on his part and he has submitted the following : 

" 'Any person aggrieved by a refusal of a school 
committee may apply to any justice of the Supreme 
Judicial Court' " 

He expressed satisfaction with the bill as it now 
stands, and willingness to argue on the testimony 
already in. 

Mr. Bartlett, superintendent of the Haverhill schools, 
said that the Haverhill school case was merely 

95 



96 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

a side-light on one phase of the school question. He 
quoted from recent census reports to prove the rapid 
increase of the French population in Lewiston, which 
shows 2,959 children of French extraction; Manches- 
ter, which out of a population of 40,000 contains 12,000 
French; Nashua, which in twenty years has seen the 
French population grow from a dozen families to a 
population of 6,000, almost forty per cent, of the entire 
population. He thought that if so large a proportion 
of these, and the manufacturing cities, Lowell, Law- 
rence, Haverhill and Fall River were French, the State 
should be able to influence their future. 

He quoted from the mottoes displayed at a fair held 
by the Society of St. John the Baptist, for the French 
Catholic school in Haverhill, and the French Catholic 
paper, Le Travailleur, published in Worcester, to show 
that Canada and Canadian institutions, rather than 
America and American institutions, were the ideals of 
this rapidly-growing element. 

Mr. Bartlett waxed pathetic over his own position 
as butt and target in the Haverhill case, and declared 
that he appeared only in the interests of the French 
children who cannot determine their own education. 
He spoke not as school superintendent, but as a citizen 
of Massachusetts, loving her institutions, and he made 
a dramatic appeal for the preservation of the English 
language. 

A brief discussion followed between Mr. McEttrick 
and Mr. Bartlett as to the merits of the respective 
methods of instructing a French child in the English 
language, Mr. McEttrick maintaining that English 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 97 

could be taught much more readily to French-speaking 
children by teachers who understood both languages 
than by those who spoke English alone; and Mr. 
Bartlett asserting that his experience justified a con- 
trary opinion. 

Mr. Donnelly then put direct and forcible questions 
to Mr. Bartlett, as to whether he was sincere in his 
apprehension that New England was in danger of 
becoming a Canadian province unless the French chil- 
dren were compelled to study in English. Mr. Bart- 
lett hoped not — thought it depended very largely — the 
tendency was that way — and much more in the same 
vague and uncertain manner. 

Mr. Donnelly : "Do you think yourself, as an intelli- 
gent man, that any acts of any Legislature can abolish 
race or religious prejudice? Do you think acts of the 
Legislature can accomplish that purpose?" 

Mr. Bartlett first evaded; and then said the ques- 
tion "demands a great deal of philosophical thought." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Has not Massachusetts endeavored 
to convert Baptists and Quakers by acts of the Colonial 
Legislature?" 

Mr. Bartlett : "Quite likely." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Has it not resorted to hanging 
them?" 

Mr. Bartlett : "Quite likely." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Is not that kind of legislation legis- 
lation of the past?" 

Mr. Bartlett would not revive that kind of legisla- 
tion, but only wanted such as would ensure that chil- 
dren be well taught in the English language. 
7 



98 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Mr. Donnelly pointed out the error of entirely ig- 
noring the sentiment which the Canadians have on 
entering this country; and asked him if he had any 
further evidence of their want of loyalty — further than 
what he had quoted, which were the expressions of 
idealists and not the sentiments of the people. He 
made plain the absurdity of supposing that such vision- 
ary ideas could have any effect on the destinies of 
Massachusetts. 

In response to further questions of Mr. Donnelly, 
Mr. Bartlett said that his connection with the Haver- 
hill schools began in 1872, and that he has a brother 
who is a member of the Haverhill school committee. 
Mr. Donnelly cited said brother, Mr. Horace Bartlett, 
as advocating in the H&uerhill Bulletin, as a member of 
the school committee, the necessity of employing in the 
public school, which had then fifty children who could 
not speak English, a teacher who understood the 
French language — that was in 1882. Mr. Bartlett said 
the committee had changed their minds since that time. 

Mr. Donnelly read from the report of the school 
committee on the public school at the Pines, Methuen : 
"The school in the Pines will advance much more 
rapidly under a teacher whose mother tongue is 
French." 

Mr. Bartlett said that would not change his views 
at all. 

Questioned as to whether he appeared by formal 
vote of the school committee, Mr. Bartlett grew vague 
again. Hereupon, at the instance of Mr. Long, Mr. 
Stover came to the rescue as the representative from 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 99 

Haverhill, He said that he was requested to intro- 
duce the order, and the object of the order was that 
the committee shall be able to compel parents to 
have their children taught the English language twenty 
weeks in a year. This was the wish of the school com- 
mittee. There were men of various religious beliefs, 
but no men of French extraction on that committee. 
Mr. Stover could not word the vote instructing Mr. 
Bartlett to appear for the Haverhill school committee, 
but said the meaning of it was that Mr. Bartlett, the 
city solicitor, and any members of the school commit- 
tee should appear and try to make the committee on 
education legislate against Judge Carter's decision. 

Mr. Stover alluded to the committee's approval of 
St. James' parochial school. In answer to Mr. Mc- 
Ettrick as to what is the form of approving a school, 
Mr. Stover said there is no specified form. He did not 
account himself competent to institute a comparison 
between the two parochial schools, but thought St. 
James' the best. 

Answering Mr. Donnelly, he said the Haverhill 
committee were trying to get a law that these children 
shall have schooling twenty weeks each year in the 
English language. 

Further questioning revealed the fact that the Hav- 
erhill order did not include Section 6 of the original 
bill, marked 4 in the amended bill presented by Mr. 
Long on behalf of the petitioners, as to the penalties 
for persons who use influence to prevent parents from 
sending their children to the public schools, etc. 

In response to Mr. McEttrick. he did not care how 



loo DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

the child acquired his education, so that it was up to 
the proper standard. Asked by Mr. Mathews if he 
would object to allowing a private school to exist 
which was not under the supervision of the school 
committee, he said his school committee will be satis- 
fied with the law, no matter what it is ; of course they 
care, but do not care enough to make any trouble 
about it. They would be satisfied to allow private 
schools to exist which in fact could satisfy a court of 
justice that the children there received the same educa- 
tion as required in the public schools. 

Discussing the bill, Mr. Donnelly objected to the 
invasion of the right of the parent. Let the State inter- 
fere when the parent neglects his duty. In every 
instance where a parent is not providing a child with 
the means of education, the matter should be entirely 
under the control of judicial tribunals, and not under 
the control of the school committee. In other words, 
the State would simply look to the parent and not 
to the school, and where the truant officer found in any 
instance a child not being properly trained that would 
be the subject of a complaint to a court, and the parent 
would subject himself to a penalty. 

Mr. Long pleaded that his clients are urging but 
little change in the law, except to make it definite. 
He said : "I would put in a further provision in regard 
to the approval of parochial schools : 'If any one is 
dissatisfied with the school committee he may appeal 
to the Supreme Court.' " 

Mr. Mathews, after alluding to the way the bill has 
been pared down and softened from its original ex- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL loi 

tensive provisions and bitter spirit, suggested that after 
the word "otherwise" there should be inserted "that is 
to say, in some private school not approved by the 
school committee," thus rendering the parent's right 
clear to educate his child in a private school not 
approved by the school committee provided he can 
satisfy a court of justice that he is educating the child 
in branches required by law. If that be put in, the 
main objection on the part of his clients would, he 
thought, be removed. 

Dr. Miner said that the present law made the school 
committee the eye of the Commonwealth, and chari- 
tably suggested that if these private schools wish to be 
clear from inspection the inference is that they wish 
to drop below the standard. 

Judge Carter appeared, not by invitation, but on his 
own desire, to defend his decision in the Haverhill 
case. When the statute was presented to him at the 
trial he saw what he considered to be the groundwork 
of his decision. The law, after specifying the schools 
to be approved, adds, "or otherwise provide a means 
of education." As an interpreter of the law he would 
have to recognize poverty, if that excuse were pre- 
sented for non-attendance ; or attendance at the private 
or half-time schools approved by the committee. The 
defendants showed that they had availed themselves in 
good faith of the means of education afforded in the 
private schools. It was not necessary to show that 
the parochial school was equal to the public, or had 
been approved by the school committee. Father Boucher 
brought in the text-books. No objection was made to 



I02 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

any of them except to a history and a speller. The 
history was not comprehensive enough; only a few 
pages in relation to the Civil War. The speller was 
held up in the most dramatic manner. Solicitor Moody 
made the discovery that the speller was by a Catholic 
priest, and said, "published by a Catholic priest," as if 
he had made a discovery which ought to decide the 
case. 

Said Judge Carter : "I remarked that that had noth- 
ing to do with the case ; the law provides that no school 
shall be disapproved on account of any religious teach- 
ing therein." 

Judge Carter added that he had never given a 
decision which he thought more satisfactory than that. 
He was satisfied he construed the law correctly; satis- 
fied it nipped in the bud a bad animus, for he had not 
left his seat before he heard a few excitable persons 
and a few religious zealots exclaim : "We shall have 
another St. Bartholomew! We shall have anarchy 
and socialism here!" They had sent the judge letters 
condemning him for going over to "that demon, 
Rome." He said his sympathies were enlisted in re- 
gard to that particular school. He will not believe 
that children speaking only French if put into schools 
with teachers speaking only English will make the best 
progress, and he is opposed to any law which shall say 
that these French children shall be taught in English 
entirely. He suggested to add after the second clause : 
"But they shall not refuse to approve a private school 
on account of religious teaching therein" and "nor be- 
cause pupils who are unable to speak English are 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 103 

taught partly in their own language until they shall 
have acquired the English language." 

Further on. Judge Carter said : "The remark made 
here a dozen times that the school was established to 
prevent their becoming Americans is perfect humbug. 
The larger proportion of those who were naturalized 
before me were Frenchmen, and a better set of men I 
never saw ; I commented upon it at the time, and dis- 
covered, to my surprise, that about half of them were 
Republicans." (Laughter, renewed when Mr. Long 
said: "That was an evidence of their intelligence, and 
evidence that they would become good citizens.") 

Frequently in the course of his manful speech Judge 
Carter emphasized his conviction that the whole affair 
is an attempt to renew dissensions between Catholics 
and Protestants — an attempt which he greatly deplored. 
Mr. Long declared that he also deplored antagonisms 
on account of religion. 

The remainder of the hearing was taken up with a 
discussion as to methods of teaching English to for- 
eigners; the opponents of the private schools insisting 
that these could be taught English without any aid 
from a teacher familiar with their native tongue. Mr. 
Keane, however, showed that this fine theory was not 
practised by its advocates. 

The fourth hearing took place on April 5, and pre- 
vious to the opening the chairman was obliged to 
remind the audience of the impropriety of applause, 
hissing, or any other demonstration. The case pro- 
ceeded as follows : 

Mr. Long: "I had hoped to put on Mr. Desmond, 



I04 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

an Irish Catholic and also a member of the school com- 
mittee of Haverhill, but I have a letter from him which 
I will read." (Begins to read letter.) 

Mr. Donnelly: "I think it very important that Mr. 
Desmond should be present; I understand the gentle- 
man holds a salaried office for which he is indebted to 
the gentlemen who support this bill, and it seems to me 
that we should have an opportunity of examining him 
and not inject here in an ex-part e manner his state- 
ment." 

Chairman Campbell : "The committee can judge of 
the letter." 

Mr. Donnelly : "But the committee would not know 
that he owes his office and owes his living to these 
gentlemen if I did not state it ; I know nothing of the 
gentleman; I state it as a fact because I am so 
instructed." 

Mr. McEttrick: "I wish to state here that at the 
hearing before this committee last year testimony was 
offered of the same nature. At that time the committee 
considered the question and refused to admit such 
testimony; I do not see why Mr. Desmond cannot 
come here. He has had abundant opportunity to 
do so." 

Mr. Long: "I cannot believe the committee are 
afraid to have the letter read." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Nor are we afraid to have him 
come." 

Mr. McEttrick asked that the matter be referred to 
a vote of the committee. It was voted to admit the 
letter, which was accordingly read. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 105 

Mr, Donnelly said that the gentleman might have 
come and given his testimony in a much shorter time 
than it had taken to write his letter ; and that it seemed 
but fair that he should appear and be examined. 

Mr. Long said he was informed by Mr. Bartlett, the 
superintendent of schools at Haverhill, that Mr, Des- 
mond would come if a time can be fixed when the com- 
mittee would hear him. 

Mr. Donnelly, in behalf of the remonstrants, con- 
sented that Mr. Desmond should be heard out of order 
if necessary. 

The letter of Mr. Desmond recites : 

"No school should be permitted to exist where repre- 
sentatives of the school board are not allowed to visit 
it at certain reasonable and proper times. I care not 
how prejudiced or bigoted a school board may be, they 
will hardly refuse to approve a parochial school unless 
they believe that their objections will be sustained in 
the Supreme Court. Speaking for many intelligent 
Catholics in this city and State who wish to know from 
some outside source that their children are not losing 
ground in the parochial schools and who are now sub- 
ject to 'taxation without representation' in order to 
maintain parochial schools and churches. I can only 
say that they are decidedly opposed to education with- 
out representation, and, law or no law. a parochial 
school which closes its doors against a representative 
of the school board who comes with honest intentions 
of fair dealing does not meet with their approval. I, 
myself, in common with several other young men in 
this city, have v/asted one or two years of my school 



io6 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

life in a very poor parochial school, where we were so 
crowded into a dingy basement that it was impossible 
to maintain good order. We were finally obliged to 
go back to the public schools and begin anew where we 
had left off. Things have changed, however. Mr. 
Stover remarked on Wednesday that St. James' school 
was a 'pretty good' school a year ago. I visited it last 
week in company with Mr. Goodrich, a former mem- 
ber of the board, and we are prepared to say that it is 
a very good school, simply and solely because the pas- 
tor started out with a determination to make the school 
the equal of the public schools in every respect, and he 
has invited honest inspection and criticism. The result 
is that many Catholics have sent their children to this 
school who would not have done so if it had not been 
approved by the school board. . . . Other things being 
equal, I admit that it is the duty of every Caholic 
parent to send his children to a parochial school. . . . 
I disagree with Mr. Moody when he says that in his 
opinion there is a deliberate purpose on the part of 
Father Boucher to prevent the children under his conr 
trol from becoming American citizens. The fact is, 
that his ideas in regard to education and citizenship 
are so totally different from those of the most intelli- 
gent of his own people and citizens generally that I 
almost despair of arriving at any satisfactory result in 
the present difficulty. ... A year ago, and about six 
months before the opening of the French parochial 
school, I had the pleasure of listening to recitations in 
the Wingate school, where the majority of the children 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 107 

were French. I was surprised at the facility with 
which they recited in good EngHsh." 

At the conclusion of the reading of the letter Mr. 
Donnelly reiterated his desire that Mr. Desmond 
appear before the committee. Mr. Long said he would 
do so if a time could be definitely fixed for such 
appearance. 

Mr. Long said he reserved the right to rebut any- 
thing; but had nothing further to say; the Rev. Dr. 
Miner or Secretary Dickinson might wish to speak. 

Dr. Miner : "I have no objection to saying in a gen- 
eral way what I understand, though I was not the 
drawer of the bill, nor was I in consultation at all 
when certain changes were made." 

Asked by Mr. Keane if he were consulted in regard 
to the original bill — 

Dr. Miner : "I heard it read after it had been drawn. 
Now, I wish to direct attention to this clause in the 
bill relating to threats. Let me suppose a case; the 
gentlemen may say no case ever arose : Suppose a 
given priest in a given parish says from the desk or 
makes it otherwise understood through the parish that 
it is the policy of the Roman Catholic Church to edu- 
cate all its youth in parochial schools; he makes no 
threats ; he gives a piece of information ; he tells 
nothing new. It is known that this is the policy, 
just as far as practicable; I do not go into particulars 
on that subject; these gentlemen will not ask for them; 
they know them too well already. Now, supposing 
that priest, having it thus understood through his 
parish what is expected, should find that Mr. A. B. 



io8 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

declines to take his children from the public schools 
and send them to a parochial school, approved or 
otherwise, but having made no threat whatever, pro- 
ceeds to excommunicate that parent." 

Mr. McEttrick : "Will the gentleman define what he 
means by excommunication?" 

Dr. Miner: "I understand; no matter what I un- 
derstand." 

Mr. McEttrick : "I have preferred to ask him that 
question; he can refuse to answer it." 

Dr. Miner: "I am supposing a case; I am suppos- 
ing that without any previous threats a parent declines 
or omits to take his children from the public schools; 
he is refused absolution; a child dies and is refused 
burial in consecrated ground ; he is refused a marriage 
ceremony under the rules of the Church; or, in ex- 
treme cases, excommunicated, which reaches beyond 
purgatory." 

Mr. McEttrick : "Now, supposing the parent 
chooses not to send his children to the parochial school, 
is not the parent free by law to do as he chooses ?" 

Dr. Miner: "If he is willing to go down" (point- 
ing downward). 

Mr. Keane : "What do you mean by that ?" 

Dr. Miner : "The gentleman may think it very wise 
to feign ignorance." 

Mr. Keane: "We don't need to feign ignorance; 
we have a specimen of it before us." 

Mr. McEttrick : "Cannot a man exercise his own 
judgment?" 

Dr. Miner : "A man may." 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 109 

Mr. McEttrick: "Won't the law protect him in it? 
If you sacrifice your rights voluntarily are you not to 
blame?" 

Dr. Miner : "A man educated in the doctrines of 
the Church is under a constraint from his religious 
education that reaches beyond this world." 

Mr. McEttrick : "Can the law interfere in regard 
to that?" 

Dr. Miner : "With regard to the question that has 
been pressed upon me: The law does presume upon 
the equality of all men before the law. That is all I 
care to say, gentlemen. We wish to protect such men 
in the enjoyment of their personal liberties, and I con- 
clude with the remark, if there is nothing of this sort, 
the law can do no possible harm." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Do you not recognize the necessity 
of some authority to be lodged in every religious body ? 
Some right to make ordinances, rules and regulations 
as to the conduct of its members?" 

Dr. Miner: "The question is very broad; I recog- 
nize the right of every religious body to make regu- 
lations within the limits of the public law." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Some years ago, when slavery ex- 
isted, a great many men said there was a higher law 
than the Constitution of the United States. How are 
you going to ascertain what that higher law is, what 
is the guide to direct us in regard to what is the higher 
law?" 

Dr. Miner: "God, through His revelation, has in- 
structed us, and in that respect one man has the same 
right to come to the primal source as another." 



no DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Mr. Donnelly: "If a Catholic should disobey in a 
matter outside of the domain of faith and morals, 
would he thereby incur excommunication from his 
Church?" 

Dr. Miner : "My answer is the Pope at Rome and 
Dr. McGlynn." 

Mr. Donnelly: "What is the authority of the Pope 
outside of the domain of faith and morals? Is it not 
true that in every Church there must necessarily be 
some authority to teach and to determine in questions 
of faith and morals?" 

Dr. Miner : "So long as it confines itself to the do- 
main of faith and morals I have nothing to say." 

Mr. Donnelly: "The Constitution of the United 
States is a succession of political dogmas. Why should 
not each Church have its dogmas?" 

Dr. Miner : "I should hope the Church to stand in 
relation to the law." 

Mr. Donnelly : "I simply ask whether or not you 
do not recognize dogma?" 

Dr. Miner : "I do not recognize authority in any 
man to enforce his dogma." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Nor in any Church ? A man incurs 
the censure of the Church by a violation of its rules or 
regulations, and necessarily incurs the sentence of ex- 
communication. What is his remedy?" 

Dr. Miner : "I will answer you. I belong myself to 
a Church, and we have certain forms of fellowship, 
certain rules of discipline. If a man is accused he 
is arraigned and tried on the charges, and if the 
charges be sustained, he may be dismissed from the 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL iii 

ranks of the Church. But if we do not keep to the civil 
law, if we violate it, he may appeal to the courts and be 
re-instated." 

Mr. Donnelly : "You seem to have rules of disci- 
pline for dis-fellowship ; you do not use the word ex- 
communication in regard to your Church, although you 
use it in regard to the Catholic Church. Is it not 
proper where there is a violation of the law of an as- 
sociation, a business body, or a Church, that it should 
have authority in certain cases to expel an offending 
member?" 

Dr. Miner : "No Church has a right to put a man 
under disabilities for doing what the public law guar- 
antees him a right to do." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Then you would have the State 
higher than the individual conscience of its citizens. 
The State claims the right to interfere in ecclesiastical 
affairs, and say when a member shall be considered a 
member and when he shall not be?" 

Dr. Miner: "You are not putting the case fairly; 
the denomination is obliged to keep within its own 
rules. Its rules should be so drawn as to be in sub- 
ordination to the commands of the civil power." 

Mr. Donnelly : "I understand that under our system 
of government, we not having any State religion, the 
action of the individual in religious matters is left 
entirely to himself and to the Church to which he be- 
longs, and that his true remedy, if he quarrels with his 
Church and is unwilling to submit to her decision, is 
to leave it and go to another where he can have more 
of his own way, or not go to any at all." 



112 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Dr Miner:- "If he has the nerve to stand against the 
authorities, that is just what he will do." 

Mr. Donnelly : "In other words, you would have the 
law interfere?" 

Dr. Miner: "Not within the limits of the morality 
of the Church ; I grant every man perfect liberty until 
he interferes with my liberty. The counsel claims the 
Church is superior to the State?" 

Mr. Donnelly : "I do not claim anything of the kind ; 
each moves in parallel lines ; the position of the Cath- 
olic Church is simply this : That where a child's faith 
or morals appear by proper evidence in any given case 
to be in danger in any school, public or private, then 
the parent incurs censure from the Church should he 
continue to send his child to such school. We have 
had a great deal of misconduct in certain public schools, 
and Dr. Miner, himself a member of the State Board 
of Education, knows it. When the morals of the 
school or of the scholars are bad it is the duty of the 
pastor to say in such cases to the parent, you must 
remove your child from the school. Is it not proper 
for a pastor to warn a parent that a certain school is 
a dangerous one if it be so in fact ? The mere fact that 
a parent sends his child to a public school does not 
subject him to censure from the Catholic Church, no 
matter what may be said to the contrary." 

Dr. Miner: "Does not the Catholic Church com- 
mand the building of these schools?" 

Mr. 'Donnelly : "She does direct the establishing of 
parochial schools wherever practicable, for the Catholic 
Church believes that moral and religious instruction 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 113 

should go hand in hand with secular training, and the 
Catholic Church favors public schools wherever the 
Government will consent to denominational training in 
them. It is her course in Germany, England, Ireland, 
and Scotland to commend the public schools to her 
people." 

Dr. Miner: "The gentleman has said that the 
Church and State run in parallel lines, and do not 
interfere with each other; he forgets what the Pope 
has said in his encyclical." (He reads from a book.) 

Mr. Donnelly : "Please give the author of the book." 

Dr. Miner: "It is quoted as from the Rev. Josiah 
Strong, Evangelical Alliance. I simply say it is the 
claim of the Roman Catholic Church to dominate in 
all cases whenever it chooses, and it is against that that 
I stand here to protest. Protestantism instructs, per- 
suades; the Roman Catholic Church commands; the 
difference is wide and the difference in administration 
is as wide." 

Mr. Donnelly : "No such document ever emanated 
from the Catholic Church. The language quoted is 
not the language of the Catholic Church, The version 
given of the Encyclical in question is garbled." 

Dr. Miner: "You say that the spirit of these state- 
ments is not true?" 

Mr. Donnelly : "I say the quotation is not an honest 
one, and I say it is not in keeping with Catholic doc- 
trine. No child in the Catholic Church is taught any- 
thing but subordination to the civil authority in all 
matters within the domain of civil law." 

Dr. Miner : "I would call attention to the fact, in 
8 



114 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

which I think the secretary of the board of education 
will concur, that the State must necessarily be superior 
in all things pertaining to it, and further, that the 
State cannot survive without intelligence." 

Mr. Donnelly : "You said the time would come when 
the State would have to take the education of its chil- 
dren into its own hands. Is that not socialism ?" 

Dr. Miner : "It is not." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Is that not what the anarchists 
teach in Chicago?" 

Representative Gracey, of Salem, here came in to 
explain his non-appearance in advocacy of his own 
bill. He said he had been detained at other hearings 
at the State House, but had, nevertheless, been in the 
Green Room at several hearings. He disclaimed any 
disposition to attack the Catholic Church, and said he 
recognized the work it was doing for God, for human- 
ity, and for religious education. Defending Section 4 
of the amended bill, which imposes penalties for any 
threat of ecclesiastical disabilities, etc., he said it 
simply proposed that the State should be protected 
as to the children who were to become its future citi- 
zens, and that they should be trained in the best way 
to secure their becoming good citizens. He cited a 
case — but declined to give the name — of a woman in 
Salem who sent her children to the parochial school 
under religious compulsion; and then cited the case 
of a woman who had left Ireland on account of the 
persecution she had been subjected to because she 
would not send her children to the parochial schools. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Mr. Donnelly: "Can you give the name of the 
woman ?" 

Mr. Gracey : "I can, but don't choose to." 
Mr, Donnelly: "Do you know whether parochial 
schools exist in Ireland?" 

Mr. Gracey : "I do not know much about it." 
Mr. Donnelly: "Now, do you not know that paro- 
chial schools do not exist in Ireland ? They have there 
what is called the National System, schools in which 
religious instruction is given to the fullest extent. Do 
you not know that it is the system established by Arch- 
bishop Whately? There are no parochial schools in 
Ireland. You state that the Commonwealth's claim to 
the control and education of a child is superior to that 
of the parent. Do you as an American citizen think 
that in keeping with the theory of our Government?" 
Mr. Gracey: "I think so." 



CHAPTER VIII 

The great feature of the next hearing was Mr. 
Donnelly's opening argument for the remonstrants. 
He said : 

Mr. Chairman : No matter what the shortcomings 
of counsel may be on the other side, there is one thing 
we cannot entertain any doubt about, and that is the 
disposition on the part of the counsel for the peti- 
tioners here to be fair and courteous towards all 
parties. I think we have to congratulate ourselves on 
the fact that counsel are here this year who have to 
direct and manage this case. Counsel so distinguished 
and counsel who are so honest can in some degree 
diminish the acrimony here of discussion. If my 
brother Long has exceeded the proprieties, it certainly 
has not been intentional, but it is probably from that 
over-zeal that all counsel in the interest of their clients 
are more or less carried into in the heat of discussion. 
All I can say is that so far personally I have nothing 
to complain of counsel, but on the contrary, have every- 
thing to say in their favor, and I think that the widest 
liberty should be extended to the counsel for the peti- 
tioners, as we claim that and only that for ourselves. 

This whole subject has been under discussion now 
for over a year in this state. The people of Massa- 
chusetts are called the most intelligent people in any 
commonwealth in the world, and they are so styled, 

ii6 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 117 

not by themselves, but by those outside of their terri- 
tory, and I think that the compHment is not wholly 
undeserved. Now let us as citizens of Massachusetts 
discuss and calmly consider this question in the various 
aspects and the bearings that are necessarily involved 
in it. There is, of course, the political aspect, and 
when I say the political aspect, I do not mean it in the 
narrow sense, in the partisan sense, but I mean it in 
the broadest sense, — that is, in the constitutional view 
of the question. We have, to guide us in our public 
action the fundamental law, which we commonly 
entitle the Bill of Rights, and the Bill of Rights is the 
great barrier set up by the fathers of this Republic for 
the protection, not of majorities, because majorities are 
always able to protect themselves, but for the pro- 
tection of minorities, and especially for the protection 
of individual rights. Our Declaration of Independence 
recites that, all men are created free and equal. They 
are created free, — free from what? Free from all 
restraint whatsoever except to God alone. That is the 
condition of man in a state of nature. There he is 
entirely free from restraint by his fellowmen except 
so far as his fellowmen may, by brute force, be able to 
dominate over him. For the protection of the indi- 
vidual, society is established, and forms of government 
are established for the protection of the rights of the 
weaker ones. Among the natural rights which every 
man is entitled to and holds dear is the right to the 
control and custody of his children. The family is a 
much older institution than the state; and there is no 
constitution, there is no law that can ever abrogate 



ii8 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

the rights of the family. Children are the gifts of 
God to their parents ; their parents are the sole arbiters 
and controllers of their destiny on this earth. But 
while parents have rights, undoubtedly, so parents have 
duties to perform. And where they clearly and mani- 
festly violate their duties and obligations to their chil- 
dren, then some power must intervene to compel the 
performance and discharge of those duties. 

Last year in this controversy the position that the 
remonstrants maintained was the right of the parent 
to educate his child in secular matters, in morals and 
in religion as he considered proper, that is as long as 
he did not educate them to anything that was in oppo- 
sition to law or order or morals as recognized in every 
community whether pagan or Christian. Now that is 
the great contention in this whole controversy. The 
contention that we had last year is what comes up to 
be discussed this year. It may take several years to 
educate the people in this commonwealth, gentlemen, 
in the discussion of this question as to exactly what 
the rights and duties of parents are and as to what 
the rights, duties and obligations of the state are, but 
I think as long as Massachusetts exists, the rights of 
the family and the sacredness of the family will be 
respected and the natural right of the parent will not 
be invaded. I am sorry to see that the old charges 
that were made last year against the people of the 
Catholic church, the church of a very large portion 
of the people of this Commonwealth, — over 900,000 
out of 2,000,000 inhabitants are Catholics, — but the 
charges have been made here either through malice or 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 119 

through ignorance or through both, that the Catholics 
of this Commonwealth are disloyal to the institutions of 
the country, and that owing to their peculiar relations 
to the Church it is utterly impossible to make them 
loyal, or if they be loyal, that if they are true to their 
Church they cannot be loyal to the state. Well, that is 
an old charge. There is nothing new about it ; it is as 
old as the time of Henry VIII., at least, and has been 
under discussion ever since the Reformation; and my 
friends of the clerical persuasion can be referred to 
what Solomon says in his proverb "There is nothing 
new under the sun," and I think it will be appropriate 
here. 

For centuries the Catholic body in Ireland and in 
England, like the Quakers and like the Dissenters, it 
was held, could not be loyal to the government of 
Great Britain though they were born under it and not 
under any other flag. Finally religious liberty was 
conceded to all except the Catholics, for, until 1829, 
no Catholic was allowed to appear as a member of 
parliament, or be elected as a member of parliament, 
or would be received as a member of parliament on 
the theory of the English law that he could not be a 
loyal subject and he could not be a faithful represen- 
tative of the people, or true to the government. There 
was more than a century of contention about this very 
question that is brought up here, recently resurrected, — 
last year for the first time. There was more than a 
century of contention in the British parliament on that 
question, and it was so in the Irish parliament while 
the Irish had a parliament, — no Catholic could be a 



I20 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

member, — none but Protestants could be eligible on the 
theory that Catholics could not be loyal to the crown. 
In spite of the fact that most of the people of Great 
Britain were Protestants and that they maintained a 
state church; in spite of the fact that they could out- 
number the Catholics about five to one, in 1829 the 
barrier was at last broken down. Intelligence pre- 
vailed and it was recognized by the body of the people 
of Great Britain that a man could be a good Catholic 
and yet be a loyal subject. That threadbare old charge 
against the Catholic body is iterated and reiterated 
daily from the desks and from the pulpits of Boston 
as though it were something novel and original here, 
as though it had never been heard of until the charges 
made within the last year. I do not think to the body 
of the reflecting portion of the people of this Common- 
wealth that for one moment it could be viewed as a few 
partisan zealots and bigots have viewed it, because 
whatever question there might be on the other side of 
the water in reference to religious differences, here as we 
have no state church, — we have not had for some years 
in Massachusetts, — we used to have I believe, and the 
ministers used to influence everything, but as we have 
had no state church for a good many years here, I 
think it is pretty well understood that a man might be 
a Methodist, an Episcopalian, a Baptist or a Catholic 
and still be loyal to the state. About twenty-five years 
ago while the war was being prosecuted I was called 
upon to prosecute a schoolteacher at a town called 
Shirley, in this state, for having punished two chil- 
dren, beaten them, one a child of the age of eight years 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 121 

and the other ten years of age, for not reciting the 
Protestant version of Our Lord's prayer. That hap- 
pened only twenty-five years ago, — two Httle children 
were unmercifully beaten in Shirley, one eight and the 
other ten years of age for not reciting the Protestant 
version of the Lord's prayer! At that time it was 
neither politic nor wise to offend the Catholic body on 
the part of anyone in control in this state because they 
were being recruited largely for the defense of our 
common country. The result of that prosecution was 
the commitment of the master to await the action of 
the grand jury in Middlesex county on the ground 
that the government had made out a case, but the 
grand jury suppressed the bill. We heard nothing 
more about it. 

Now I want to tell you, Mr. Chairman and gentle- 
men of the committee, what followed. Within twenty 
years from that time the people of that town employed 
a Catholic schoolteacher to teach in their public schools. 
That is the progress of toleration, that is the progress 
of liberty in Massachusetts. 

Extremes beget extremes. An extreme policy pur- 
sued by the state to-day, or adopted by the legislature 
to-day may result in a reaction sooner or later. Sixty- 
eight towns and cities in this Commonwealth are now 
populated by the Catholics who are in the majority. It 
becomes and behooves the members of the legislature 
in considering this question to look at it in its remotest 
aspects and bearings. That is what a wise legislature 
will do, — see what the consequence is going to be in 
the future, not in the small towns but in the large com- 



122 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

munities of Massachusetts that we want to keep under 
wise and proper and judicious control and in the hands 
of conservative men. I am sure the Legislature will not 
listen to impassioned appeals from the pulpit or from 
the platform, and they will look at the thing not as it 
may be considered for a day but as it may be considered 
in reference to the future. A special attack has been 
made upon a people here descended from a noble race; 
a people who have marked their progress in Massachu- 
setts by the utmost industry, by good behavior, by the 
greatest interest possible in our institutions, and by 
being the most orderly portion of the population of 
the state, take them all in all, for I think that the 
criminal records of the courts of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts will show that to be the fact, that 
there are less of them brought before the criminal 
courts than of any other nationality in proportion to 
their number. I am speaking of the Canadian French 
people, as they are called; and that body now repre- 
sents, as has been said, and as I am informed, about 
120,000 persons, or a voting strength, when fully 
qualified, of about 15,000 votes. Let them be prose- 
cuted and persecuted as it is proposed and you make 
them one compact body acting with any party or any 
organization that will assist in defending their rights, 
it does not make any difference what it is because their 
interest will be primary then. Theirs will be the most 
important. That is a matter to be considered. I have 
nothing to say in defense of those of Irish origin; I 
think they have vindicated themselves all through 
their record in this country and in Massachusetts. They 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 123 

went to the front promptly and they fought, tens of 
thousands of them, to carry the flag of their adopted 
country successfully against the rebels. They made 
common cause with those who were born here and who 
were descended from the first settlers of this continent, 
and I do not think they need any defense at my hands. 
A very large portion of the population of this country 
to-day are Catholics. A large number of the wives of 
the men of this country are Catholics. The death of 
Sheridan is too recent for us to forget. We remember 
the profession in which he lived, and how he died sur- 
rounded by those very religious women who are now 
made the subject of contempt by those or some of those 
about me here. And we remember the death of the 
wife of General Sherman. She was a Catholic; she 
brought up her children so. I do not think she ever 
inspired a disloyal sentiment in the mind of her hus- 
band, and I do not think any body will suggest that she 
did. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, this old charge that is made 
here before the committee is ostensibly a charge in 
reference to the Haverhill school and that they do not 
use the English language in it. It is the merest, 
gauziest pretense. It is a piece of hypocrisy that is 
discreditable to those who pretend that this is the whole 
charge here. It is not honest, it is not sincere, because 
it is patent that it is not the Haverhill school question 
that is at all at issue, that the real question is the ques- 
tion of in some manner or other getting the state of 
Massachusetts, through the Legislature, to intermeddle 



124 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

with the affairs of the Catholic body in this Common- 
wealth, not with the Baptists, not with the — 

Dr. Miner: "Will the Chair or counsel permit an 
interruption ?" 

Mr. Donnelly: "No sir, I will not." 

Dr. Miner: "I wish simply to say that no such 
charge has been made." 

Mr. Donnelly: "I say it is a piece of hypocrisy to 
make the suggestion that the aim is on the part of these 
people who are advocating this measure, — and I don't 
mean to say those who introduced the bill, because I 
have no doubt many of the gentlemen who have been 
instrumental in introducing the bill are entirely inno- 
cent of any wrong intent, but I mean the force that is 
behind, this power behind that is pushing the thing for- 
ward. We remember the contest of last year. Who 
sits at the left hand of Governor Long and prompts 
and suggests what he shall say from time to time ? The 
very gentleman who was conspicuous last year in the 
same way. I do not name him ; everybody knows him ; 
he sits at the head of the table. The same set of people 
are here who were here last year, but they would make 
the Legislature believe that the only idea they have in 
mind is to see that the poor little French children are 
taught in the English tongue. Now I think that the 
French people are able to take care of themselves, and 
so is the Catholic body. They know their rights, they 
know the duties of their pastors, they know how far 
their pastors can go and they know what to be mindful 
of and what to be unmindful of in that direction. Min^ 
isters of every religion in the pulpit and sometimes out- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 125 

side of it, too, are apt to arrogate to themselves the 
right to interfere in many matters in which they have 
no right to interfere, but the common intelHgence of 
the members of their congregations and their self- 
respect will be sufficient, I think, ordinarily, and is 
sufficient to protect them from intermeddling by their 
ministers or by their priests at any time where they 
attempt it; and I do not claim that my Church is free 
entirely from that class of persons, and I know the 
Protestant denominations are not. I know they are 
not. I know that very often the minister is a great 
deal bigger Pope than Pope Leo is at Rome over the 
Catholic body. 

"Now, Mr. Chairman, as an evidence of what I have 
stated of the insincerity of these people who are advo- 
cating this measure for the benefit of the people of the 
state generally, let us see how much such legislation is 
needed. It is a common saying that figures do not lie. 
What is the total school attendance in the state accord- 
ing to the census of 1885? I^ round figures, Mr. 
Chairman, 350,000 is the total school attendance, — 
350,000! What is the number attending private 
schools as they are ordinarily termed? Somewhere 
about 30,000. Now what mainly is all this legislation 
aimed at? It is intended — and the bill does not con- 
template anything more, — it is intended to protect chil- 
dren from neglect on the part of their parents, children 
between twelve and fourteen years of age from neglect 
on the part of their parents ! That is the claim, — chil- 
dren who are at work, not other children because we 
have other laws that protect them. We have laws 



126 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

provided for looking after children who are neglected 
and children who are cruelly treated, or truant chil- 
dren and those who absent themselves entirely from 
school, therefore this legislation aims mainly at chil- 
dren who are at work. 

"Now, what is the total number of children between 
ten and thirteen years of age who are at work in the 
textile manufactures, because it is not in any other 
industry hardly that children can be employed, and I 
have simply taken that branch of industry because it is 
about all that the children can labor at. Now, what is 
the total number of children, according to the census 
of 1885, employed in the textile industries? The total 
number of children so employed, between the ages of 
ten and thirteen, is only 2,595, ^"^ that is not one per 
cent of the children of Massachusetts in attendance at 
school. Only 2,595 ' ^'^^ of this number 757 are 
females, and 1,838 are males. Now what is the total 
number of illiterate children at work? Four hundred 
and sixty-seven of both sexes, 145 of this number are 
females and 322 are males. 

I was wrong, Mr. Chairman, about the attendance 
at the public schools ; it is a little over 300,000 — 304,- 
369. The total number attending all the schools will 
make 350,000 in round figures, but the total number 
attending the public schools is 304,369." 

Mr. Bicknell : "What are the figures you gave as to 
the number employed in the textile industries?" 

Mr. Donnelly : "There are 2,595 at work in the tex- 
tile manufactures, that is, children so employed." 

Mr. McEttrick : "At what age have 3^ou that?" 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 127 

Mr. Donnelly : "Between ten and thirteen is all they 
take. Now all this vast discussion and alleged interest 
in behalf of the children of the state to see that they are 
educated, that they are not neglected and brought up 
in illiteracy by their parents simply is on account of 
this fraction. I would like to know where you could 
get a Commonwealth in the world where the percent- 
age would be any less than that or could be made less 
by law. It is probable that a large number of these 
children are permitted to be employed because of the 
utter inability of the parents to get along without their 
labor. Sometimes it is a widow that has no means of 
support except that which the child will give her. 
Sometimes the parents may be dead and the child liv- 
ing with relatives, and poor relatives at that, who are 
unable to maintain it; and taking all the accidents 
of life, the accidents and the incidents of life, it seems 
to me where we have only one per cent, who are in that 
position, they do not need looking after at all, that 
the law as it stands is ample for their protection and 
for the protection of the community. 

"Now perhaps this is not the place to say it, but I 
may as well say it now as later, — Where are the edu- 
cators of the state at this hearing? Are they on the 
side of the petitioners? Has there been a man who is 
known in any marked or eminent degree in Massachu- 
setts or outside of it as an educator who comes forward 
and advocates this measure? Is there a man who is a 
thinker in Massachusetts and whose opinion weighs for 
much with the mass of the thinking and reflecting and 
educated people in this state who advocates this mea- 



128 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

sure as it is presented? Where are the Presidents of 
your colleges? Where are the masters and the prin- 
cipals of your schools? Where are the members of 
your town and city committees? Where is there any 
town in Massachusetts which sends any representative 
here to discuss this question except the town of Haver- 
hill ? Not one, not one. 

"Now if the educated people of Massachusetts 
through their proper representatives are not here de- 
manding such legislation, if the thinking and reflecting 
and known people are not here to demand it, then why 
should it be seriously considered? Well, I think that 
it is no harm to discuss it. Massachusetts has always 
been directing her mind to the improvement of her peo- 
ple. There is much here that is misunderstood in 
regard to this whole question and perhaps the more we 
discuss it calmly, coolly and intelligibly, and the more 
light we will get on it the more beneficial, perhaps, will 
the result be for the people of all classes and of all 
denominations. That is what I desire." 

"I shall call first, Mr. Chairman, the representative 
of the French people of the state, if the people please, — 
Mr. Dubuque, of Fall River." 

Representative Dubuque, of Fall River, opposed the 
bill as an uncalled-for interference with the rights of 
parents and the rights of conscience. Never heard of 
threats of excommunication from parents who sent 
their children to the public schools. Had a right as a 
Catholic to send his child to the best school he knew 
of. The parent is above the priest as far as his rights 
and duties to his children are concerned. The French 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 129 

people prefer parochial schools. As to refusal of abso- 
lution, if he disobeyed the laws of the Church : "If I 
am dissatisfied with the priest's decision I can appeal 
from it; I can leave the Church, but so long as I re- 
main in it. I ought to be willing to receive its censure 
when I render myself liable to it." He believed the 
bill to be directed against Catholics, and toward doing 
away with the private schools altogether. 

Mr. Belisle, recalled by Mr. Donnelly, gave the 
whole number of children of French parentage in 
Massachusetts, per census of 1885, as 94,471. 

At the seventh hearing on April 11, Mr. Belisle, 
Dr. Samuel Cote, of Marlboro', Pierre Bonvoulier, a 
member of the Holyoke school committee, J, H. Quillet, 
Esq., attorney-at-law, Lowell, appeared as remon- 
strants. All their testimony was in accord with that 
of Representative Dubuque. All scouted the idea of 
any national movement among the French-Canadians. 
All had cast their lot in the United States and are 
loyal to American institutions. 

Julius H. Palmer, Jr., of Boston, appeared for him- 
self alone against the bill. If it were passed, he said, 
it will make the Catholics enemies of the Government. 
It would be a dangerous law. 

As to the assertion quoted as Catholic opinion, from 
Josiah Strong's Our Country that the Pope and 
priests ought to have authority over temporal affairs, 
Mr. Palmer said he never heard any such claim made 
except by Protestant people from Protestant sources. 
Letters were read from Congressman Greenhalge, ex- 
Mayor Donovan, ex-Mayor Abbott, and others who 
9 



I30 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

had been on the Lowell school board, to show that 
the parochial schools w^ere well managed. 

At the eighth hearing Mr. Bartlett, superintendent 
of schools in Haverhill, claimed, as representing the 
20,000 citizens of that place, the right to examine wit- 
nesses on the side of the remonstrants. Mr. Donnelly 
said that Mr. Long and Mr. Rodney Lund represent 
Haverhill as well as the other interests. 

Mr. Evans: "They do not represent the Committee 
of One Hundred." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Who does represent the Committee 
of One Hundred?" 

Mr. Evans : "It is not a question of importance to 
you." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Well, that is a 'Jesuitical' answer." 

Chairman Campbell favored letting Mr. Bartlett 
cross-examine. Mr. Donnelly demonstrated that Mr. 
Bartlett represented simply the school committee of 
Haverhill, and not public opinion — not even his politi- 
cal party's opinion. 

The interest of the hearing centered in the testi- 
mony of the Rev. Joshua P. Bodfish, rector of St. 
John's church. Canton. Father Bodfish is a convert 
to the Faith, and in looks, speech, manner, a typical 
New Englander, 

To Mr. Donnelly : I was born in Falmouth, Mass ; 
I have been for over twenty-six years a Catholic, and 
for over twenty-three years a priest. Prior to that time 
was a minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church; 
officiated a short tim.e in Connecticut, also in Philadel- 
phia at the Church of All Saints; was associated with 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 131 

the Rev. Phillips Brooks; lived in the same house. 
After becoming a Catholic and a Catholic priest, was 
ten years in New York. When first a priest the school 
question came up in New York. Asked by Mr. 
Donnelly to state in a general way his view of the con- 
stitutional aspect of the question, of the natural rights 
of the parent, the general policy of State interference 
with private schools and the matter of religion in edu- 
cation, Father Bodfish, after expressing his regret that 
it should be necessary at this late day for Catholics to 
resist an attack on their freedom of conscience, stated 
that his parents, relatives and nearest friends being 
Protestants, and himself personally familiar with all 
phases of Protestant teaching regarding the Catholic 
Church, his hearers would more readily understand 
that he spoke without bitterness or animosity. 

He continued : "My genial friend, ex-Governor 
Long, who has been very wisely called into this case, 
finds it too nauseous for the legislative stomach, and 
has discreetly reduced the dose day by day, and has 
tried to put on a sugar coating to deceive us as to the 
nature of the potion. V/e have been deceived too 
often with nauseous doses of the same character. I 
am here to remonstrate against this anti-Catholic 
crusade developed in this form. It is the attempt of a 
very small, narrow and noisy class of people to inter- 
fere with the rights of over 900,000 of the Catholic 
citizens of this Commonwealth, over two fifths of the 
entire population of the State. In the great centers it 
interferes with the great majority of the parents. In 
Boston, for instance, in 1887 I find there were 12,137 



132 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

births, and of the entire number 7,382, more than 
seven twelfths, were baptized in the Cathohc Church, 
according to the official registers of that Church. You 
see, therefore, in Boston the majority of children born 
under our Constitution, and to whom the rights of 
American citizenship are guaranteed, are Catholics. 
The same is true in the manufacturing centers. There- 
fore, we justly come here to remonstrate against a set 
of, no doubt, well-meaning but over-zealous people. 
I suppose they feel as Saul felt when he went to 
Damascus, that they are doing God service, and I hope 
these petitioners may be struck down in the way he 
was, and receive light and desist from their purpose. 
I regard this attempt to interfere with the religious 
liberty of one half of the people of this Commonwealth 
as unconstitutional. The Constitution of the United 
States provides, 'Congress shall make no law respect- 
ing an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the 
free exercise thereof.' " 

He quoted Article II of Bill of Rights of Massachu- 
setts, and the nth amendment to the same, which 
guarantee to all citizens full freedom of worship. 

"You see, therefore, that I have good ground for 
saying that this is the attempt of a few, misguided, 
over-zealous people to interfere with the constitutional 
rights of a majority of the people of the Common- 
wealth. What suggested and what prompted these 
zealots to undertake to infringe upon the constitutional 
rights of the great body of the Catholic citizens of this 
Commonwealth? The only reason that has been 
assigned here, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the 



I 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 133 

committee, is that they consider CathoHcs disloyal, 
and fear that if their influence should predominate, in 
some way or other they would overthrow the free 
institutions of this country which we all so much 
love. It has been asserted over and over again that 
Catholics' first obedience is to an alien potentate; 
that in some way or other they have not given their 
full allegiance to this country. If that were really 
true, Mr. Chairman, I would not stand here as a 
Catholic, for I am an American of the Americans, and 
will yield to no one in love of country or loyalty to its 
institutions. 

"Let us see if there is anything in the teaching of 
the Catholic Church which could in any wise restrain 
a devout Catholic from being entirely devoted to his 
Church and still be as loyal as any person in this com- 
munity to the Commonwealth and American institu- 
tions ; I propose to give you high evidence on the 
matter, not from books published by the Evangel- 
ical Alliance, but from the words of the Holy 
Father, speaking as the head of the Church, whose 
words we are bound to receive and disseminate. 
(Quotes from the Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo 
XIII on the Christian Constitution of States, 
which was issued November i, 1885) : 'Let every 
soul be subject to higher powers. — Rom. xiii:i.' 
Indeed, to contemn lawful authority, in whatsoever 
person it is vested, is as unlawful as it is to resist 
the Divine Will, and whoever resists that rushes 
voluntarily to his destruction. . . . Wherefore, to 
cast away obedience and by popular violence to ex- 



134 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

cite to sedition is treason not only against man but 
against God." 

"In a more recent letter on 'Human Liberty,' and 
dated at Rome, June 20, 1888, it is stated : 'Nor has 
the Church been less lavish in the benefits she has con- 
ferred on civilized nations in every age, either by 
resisting the tyranny of the wicked, or by protecting 
the innocent and helpless from injury, or, finally, by 
using her influence in the support of any form of gov- 
ernment which commended itself to the citizens at 
home because of its justice, or was feared by enemies 
without because of its power. Moreover, the highest 
dut)'^ is to respect authority and obediently submit to 
just laws, and by this the members of a community 
are effectually protected against the wrongdoing of 
evil men. ... If when men discuss the question of 
liberty they only grasped its true meaning, they would 
never venture to affix such a calumny on the Church as 
to assert she is the foe of individual and public 
liberty.' " 

In further evidence. Father Bodfish quoted Bishop 
Carroll, first bishop of Baltimore and cousin to Charles 
Carroll of Carrollton. Congress sent this bishop to 
Canada on a diplomatic mission. On this subject of 
an alien power and foreign jurisdiction. Bishop Carroll 
says : "There would indeed be foundation for the 
reproach intended by the words foreign jurisdiction 
if we acknowledge in the successor of St. Peter any 
power or prerogative which clashed in the least degree 
with the duties we owe to our country or its laws. To 
our country we owe allegiance, and the tender of our 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 135 

best services and property, when they are necessary 
for its defense; ... to the Vicar of Christ we owe 
obedience in things purely spiritual. . . . Happily, 
there is no competition in their respective claims on us, 
nor any difficulty in rendering to both the submission 
they have a right to claim." 

Father Bodfish also quoted Archbishop Ireland, of 
Minnesota, from a sermon delivered before the Plenary 
Council of Baltimore: "Republic, monarchy, empire, 
all fare alike before the Church ; the authority in all is 
divine, and obedience toward all is obligatory." 

He cited Cardinal Gibbons' just published circular 
to his priests, directing the religious celebration of the 
centenary of Washington's inauguration. 

"Does that, Mr. Chairman, look like disloyalty or 
failure to appreciate the blessings of our free national 
institutions? Why, Mr, Chairman, there never was a 
greater calumny uttered. Washington himself said in 
the dark and troublesome days of the Revolution that 
'recruiting for the army went on best in Catholic com- 
munities.' " 

From later days he cited General Sheridan as a 
model of patriotism. 

Father Bodfish continued : "I have sometimes 
thought I was as loyal, as patriotic as any man. Com- 
ing from a family rendering conspicuous service in the 
War of Revolution and in the War of 18 12, I marched 
to the front myself during the late Civil War, but 
when I go into the assemblies of young Irish-Ameri- 
cans and when I go among the people of my congre- 
gation and see their appreciation of this country and 



136 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

devotion to "its interests, it sometimes makes me feel 
abashed. Who so loves Hberty as those who have felt 
the hand of tyranny, as those who have for centuries 
been ground down by an ahen power? The most 
patriotic people I have met are the Irish-American 
people. No one more ready to sacrifice his life for his 
country than the Irish-American, 

"My second remonstrance against this bill is from 
the fact that it is a most useless and pernicious kind of 
legislation. It is class legislation. It is a maxim with 
wise legislators not to load down the statute books with 
enactments which are useless and unnecessary. As 
Governor Long says, the making of new laws and new 
crimes is certainly a very injudicious policy. 

"A child is supposed to acquire the branches re^ 
quired in twenty weeks in a year when between eight 
and fourteen. There is no evidence here that any 
private school does not do all this, and much more than 
is required. As the law stands the rights of the State 
are more than safe. 

"Then it has been said here, Mr. Chairman, there is 
not a more dangerous thing for the peace and well- 
being of this community and for the citizens of this 
Commonwealth than to divide its citizens on religious 
lines, especially when one class of those citizens hold 
to their faith with such intensity as the Catholic people. 
At present the Catholic people divide, and some vote 
with the Republicans and some with the Democrats. 
The people and their priests differ in their views of 
the tariff, on the political expediency of this or that 
measure, and that is much the best way. to vote accord- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 137 

ing to their convictions in these matters, regarding 
civil and pohtical affairs, but there is one thing dearer 
to a man than a high or low tariff, and that is the 
Christian education of his children. If you have one 
party, as we see now, coming to meddle with the affairs 
of his conscience, with his rights, you will naturally 
have the other party defending his constitutional 
rights, and the result will be you will drive the French, 
Germans and every Catholic into one party acting upon 
religious lines. 

"If there is any war w^hich is a bitter war, if there 
is any strife which is a bitter strife, it is a religious 
strife, and if there is any strife which as citizens of 
the Commonwealth we should try to prevent, it is a 
religious strife on the part of our citizens, 

"Again, see how it works practically. In many com- 
munities, for instance in Canton where I am at present 
laboring, the Democrats have the political control. 
We had an election last week, and it resulted in what 
they call a clean Democratic sweep. What did the 
young Irish-Americans of Catholic ancestors do? 
When it came up in caucus to nominate the school 
committee they said to themselves, our children are in 
our own schools and the children of the Protestants 
are in the public schools, so they put on their ticket 
three Protestant gentlemen. Republicans, nominated 
in their caucus, and said, very well, we don't want 
them to interfere with us nor we with them, and so 
elected of their own volition, three Protestants. They 
could have elected three Catholics just as easily. Now 
you are going to appoint a committee to come into our 



138 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

schools and say what books we shall use, and would it 
not be a very natural thing for those Catholic parents 
to say if you are going to run our schools through the 
school committee I guess we will have a Catholic school 
committee, and this Catholic school committee would be 
very apt to appoint a Catholic superintendent to run 
the Protestant public schools ; that would be the natural 
result of this bill. We don't want to do this. Those 
that like the public schools can go to them and run 
them, and we claim the same privilege to run our 
private schools as we alone pay for them. 

"Furthermore, I believe there is no instance in the 
whole civilized world where the State undertakes to 
inspect schools that it does not pay for. We have 
heard something here suggesting a board of examiners. 
In foreign countries they have a board of examiners, 
but, mark you, in those countries the State pays pro 
rata for all the children educated in those schools. You 
propose a board of examiners, but do not propose to 
pay pro rata for the education of our children. You 
even propose to go against the Constitutional Amend- 
ment, which says that no money shall be expended 
for any sectarian school. You propose to manage the 
schools by a State board of examiners. You propose 
to interfere and intermeddle with private and parochial 
schools. Is not that absurd? 

"We Catholics insist on educating our children in 
our own schools. It is because we have a profound 
conviction, acquired by bitter experience, that religious 
education and secular education should go hand in 
hand. ..." 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 139 

He thus concluded : "These are the reasons why I 
come here to remonstrate against this monstrous piece 
of proposed legislation. It is not only un-American 
and unconstitutional, but it tries to do what no despot, 
even the Czar of Russia, would dare to do; it en- 
deavors to invade the domain of the conscience. As 
I have shown, no Government has a right to do 
that, and no despot would dare to do such a thing. 
Therefore, I hope, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, this 
committee will honor themselves and show their appre- 
ciation of the wishes of the people of this Common- 
wealth by giving the petitioners leave to withdraw." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Rev. Dr. Miner, who is present, is 
credited with having said publicly in 1887: 'There are 
things going on in Boston to-day in the Catholic 
Church which, if known to the public and understood, 
would make them horror-stricken. What is the mean- 
ing of cells under our own cathedral here in Boston? 
Not many of the Catholics themselves knozv.' " 

Dr. Miner stiffly answered that he did not waste his 
time denying newspaper reports. He practically 
repudiated the statement. The examination of Father 
Bodfish proceeded. Presently Dr. Miner asked : "Are 
there no excavations, strongly walled, beneath and 
below the basement floor of the cathedral?" The 
whole audience, irrespective of religious sympathies, 
burst into laughter. 

Mr. Donnelly then rose and sternly taxed him with 
responsibility for the words attributed to him. He 
asked Father Bodfish : "Are there any cells in the 
cathedral, as stated by Dr. Miner?" 



I40 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Father Bodfish : "I do not wish this matter to run 
into a farce or even low comedy. I propose to answer 
any question in explanation of what I have said, and 
if the committee wish me to answer this question they 
have only to say so." 

The question was reiterated, with, cries from Dr. 
Miner's friends in the audience, "Answer, answer." 

Dr. Miner : 'T beg leave to explain. I was informed 
that there were such places as a matter of fact. I re- 
ferred to the fact and asked, if so, what are they there 
for? I received a letter of denial from a respectable 
Catholic lady stating that they were to bury the dig- 
nitaries of the Church in. I made no further remark." 

Mr. Donnelly: "But you made the insinuation pub- 
licly that they were in existence and used for arbitrary 
and illegal purposes, and after you received that letter 
of denial why did you not withdraw the statement as 
publicly as you had made it?" 

Dr. Miner : "1 have not yet said that I regarded the 
reply as authoritative. I ask the counsel if like things 
have not existed in the institutions of the Church?" 

Mr, Donnelly : "The Governments of Catholic coun- 
tries like Spain, Portugal, and England when she was 
Catholic, did, from time to time, usurp spiritual func- 
tions, and under the pretense of caring for the immor- 
tal souls of the inhabitants who were not Catholic did 
imprison and torture them, but the Catholic Church 
herself never taught or practised such a course of 
action, and was no more responsible for such conduct 
than was the Protestant Church in England when 
England became Protestant in the persecution by the 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 141 

Government of Catholics in their religion, nor no more 
than the Protestant Church of the colony and province 
of Massachusetts was responsible for the cruelties prac- 
tised here by the Government in its persecution and 
hanging of Baptists and Quakers in the past." 

To Father Bodfish : "Are there any cells for such 
improper purposes as suggested under the cathedral 
to your knowledge?" 

Father Bodfish : "No ; as the public can see for them- 
selves, at any proper time they choose to examine. 
The story is absurd." 

Dr. Miner: "Are there no excavations strongly 
walled?" 

Father Bodfish : "There are no cells at all." 

He gave a minute description of the basement. 
Asked what was under the schoolrooms : 

"Gravel and Boston mud." 

Dr. Miner: "I accept Father Bodfish's explanation. 
I did not reject Mrs. Blake's. I think his more satis- 
factory." 

Father Bodfish: "I wish to add (speaking of the 
burial crypts under the altar) that in no sense can they 
be called cells. They are as large and airy as this 
room, with places in walls for coffins of the deceased 
archbishops." 

Chairman Campbell : "Will the committee be safe 
to go and see these rooms?" 

Father Bodfish : "Only too glad to have you. The 
rector or the chancellor, Father Neagle, who is here, 
will take pleasure in showing you the whole arrange- 
ment." 



142 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Mr. Donnelly : "Do you understand, Father Bodfish, 
that the Catholic Church is opposed to the public 
schools of this country, to the public schools per se, 
that is, because they are public schools?" 

Father Bodfish : "The Church has never objected to 
the public schools for those who want them. The 
Catholic Church enjoins upon all those who have the 
care of children that they give those children a Chris- 
tian education." 



CHAPTER IX 

The Green Room of the State House was again 
densely crowded for the eleventh hearing of the bill, 
on the morning of April i8. While the committee was 
waiting for a quorum, Messrs. D. A. Buckley, of 
Cambridge, and Brice S. Evans, of Boston, argued 
with the chairman of the committee, insisting upon 
their right to cross-examine witneses on behalf of the 
petitioners. 

Mr. Bartlett, superintendent of the Haverhill school 
board, to settle any controversy as to his right to appear 
as counsel, read for the committee the vote passed the 
preceding night by the Haverhill school board, stating 
that it was and is their intention that Mr. Bartlett 
should appear in that capacity for them. 

Mr. Donnelly asserted that this was the first vote of 
record authorizing Mr. Bartlett to appear as counsel, 
and it was passed at a meeting of the board the night 
before, although Mr. Bartlett had at all the previous 
hearings claimed he had special authority from the 
Haverhill school committee to act as its counsel, when, 
in fact, it now appeared he had received it for the first 
time as just stated. 

Louis P. Plouf, called by Mr. Donnelly, testified 
that he is a French Canadian, a Catholic, a resident of 
Haverhill twenty-three years, and of Massachusetts 
twenty-nine years ; is an undertaker and blacksmith ; a 

14.1 



144 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

citizen twelve years; has eight children, five of whom 
attend the public schools ; resides about half a mile from 
the parochial school; most of the French people in 
Haverhill favor parochial schools, as he does himself. 
Nevertheless, sends his children to the public schools, 
because at first the parochial school had not room for 
half the children applying. Lives nearer the public 
school, and some of his children are rather delicate ; has 
never been threatened with excommunication by the 
priest for sending his children to the public schools, 
and has never known of any such threat made to any- 
body else; the general sentiment of the French people 
is loyalty to this country ; they have no wish to annex 
New England to Canada, but desire rather that Canada 
should be annexed to the United States. 

To Mr, Lund : The first parochial school in Haver- 
hill was started about five years ago ; Father Boucher's 
last September. French parents generally taught their 
children French first, feeling sure that they would 
learn English later, and would thus have two lan- 
guages. His children had not become demoralized by 
attending the public schools ; the present French popu- 
lation of Haverhill was a little over 3,000 ; the number 
naturalized a little over 300; there are about 717 chil- 
dren between the ages of five and fifteen, of whom 680 
actually attend school. 

To Mr. Donnelly witness said that his wife pre- 
ferred the parochial school, but, the children being 
delicate, sent them to the public school, because it was 
better heated. 

Louis P. Poierer, a native of Burlington, Vt., of 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 145 

Canadian parentage, a Catholic, now a resident of 
Haverhill, said he kept a shoe store there; was well 
acquainted with the French Canadians there, and had 
all their trade (laughter). Had two children, neither 
of whom was of school age; the French population of 
Haverhill were unanimously in favor of private 
schools ; he was a citizen of this country ; any man who 
said that there was a sentiment or movement among 
the French people to make New England a province of 
Quebec was a man who beheved in ghosts (laughter). 
Was the author of the mottoes displayed at a French 
fair in Haverhill which Superintendent Bartlett had 
quoted at a former hearing. Would shoulder all re- 
sponsibility for them. One of those mottoes was, "Let 
us Instruct our Children as we have been Instructed." 
How have we been instructed? Why, to love and re- 
spect our parents, and to respect the country in which 
we live. Another was, "Let us be French Canadians 
and not Americans." The entire press was accustomed 
to call French Canadians French Canadians, and they 
would be French Canadians as long as they were so 
called. A third: "God watches over the French 
People," was intended individually and not collectively. 
A fourth motto had been incorrectly translated, "Let 
us Keep our Customs." The correct translation was, 
"Let us Preserve our Manners." This referred to the 
great number of wooden toothpick chewers that were 
in Haverhill (laughter). 

To Mr. Lund : We desire to have a good degree of 
English taught in the parochial schools; the parent 
should decide where the child should be educated; it 
10 



146 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

was possible for a French Canadian to be a Protestant, 
but not probable (laughter). 

Mr. Lund asked witness which he would obey in 
case the laws of the Church came in conflict with those 
of the State. 

Witness replied that no such condition was possible. 
Mr. Lund put the question another way. "Suppose the 
laws of the Church and the laws of the State conflict, 
which would you obey?" 

Mr. Poierer : "The Catholic Church up to to-day has 
always advised us to comply with the laws of the 
country in which we live." 

Mr. Lund : "But does not the Church canon specify 
all 'just' laws?" 

Witness : "All just laws, but the minute you pass 
unjust laws that are not fitting to any enlightened 
people, then I stand up as an enlightened man and good 
citizen and say I am going to fight them" (applause). 

Mr. Lund read from Vol. Ill, Cardinal Manning's 
sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects," pages 97 and 98, 
printed in London, 1873, the following passage, where 
the cardinal represents the Pope as expressing the 
scope of his oflice : "I acknowledge no civil superior ; 
I am the subject of no prince; and I claim more than 
this; I claim to be the supreme judge on earth, and 
director of the consciences of men, of the peasant that 
tills the field and the prince that sits on the throne — 
of the household that lives in the shade of privacy and 
the Legislature that makes laws for kingdoms. I am 
the sole, last supreme judge on earth of what is right 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 147 

and wrong." "Do you," said Mr. Lund, "recognize 
that as the highest authority ?" 

The witness : "I do." 

Mr. McEttrick of the committee objected to the ask- 
ing of puzzHng technical, theological questions which 
must necessarily confuse the witness. 

To Mr. Bartlett, witness said that the French Cana- 
dians in Haverhill desired to associate with the 
Americans, but were forced to establish their own 
community because the Americans would not have 
them. Witness tried to rent a house in Haverhill, 
where the landlady refused to let him the tenement 
because he was a French Canadian, and she wanted 
none but Yankees in her house. 

Mr. Donnelly : "Which is your first duty, to God or 
to your country?" 

Mr. Poierer : "To God." 

Mr. Donnelly : "If you were a subject of Great Brit- 
ain, and the Government were to require you to attend 
Protestant service, would you consider it your duty to 
obey the Government?" 

Mr. Poierer: "No, sir." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Once the Government of Japan com- 
manded all her subjects suspected of Christianity to 
trample on the cross, the emblem of the redemption of 
mankind, and would you, therefore, if then a subject 
of Japan and a Christian, deem it your bounden duty 
to obey such an order of the Government?" 

Mr. Poierer: "I would not. T ought to refuse to 
submit." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Then you believe you owe obedi- 



148 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

ence to your country in temporal matters, and to your 
God in spiritual matters?" 

Mr. Poierer: "I do." 

Mr. Thomas J. Gargan then addressed the com- 
mittee: "As a native of Boston, loving her, I am 
opposed to this bill. As one who was educated to a 
certain extent in the public schools, I recognize fully 
their merits and their defects. I am opposed to this 
bill, because I believe that Government is best which 
governs least, because I believe it to be useless, per- 
nicious and contrary to the spirit, if not to the letter, 
of the Constitution of the United States and the Con- 
stitution of Massachusetts. I am opposed to it as a 
citizen, loving my native city and State, because I 
believe the putting of such legislation upon your 
statute book means to engender a bitter spirit among 
the 2,000,000 people of this Commonwealth. I am 
opposed to this bill because it is contrary to the en- 
lightened, thinking conscience of the people of Massa- 
chusetts. I am opposed to it for another and stronger 
reason — namely, that this blow is aimed at the exist- 
ence of the family." 

Mr. Gargan complained of the unfairness of the 
petitioners in quoting as the Pope's alleged words 
garbled extracts from books published by Protestant 
houses and edited by Protestants. 

"I am opposed to this bill," continued Mr. Gargan, 
"because it contemplates a law which cannot be en- 
forced. The cry for this legislation comes from a 
misconception, and, to use a plain word, from ignor- 
ance on the part of this people who ask for this legisla- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 149 

tion. The whole fourth section, in regard to 'threats/ 
is one of the most iniquitous pieces of legislation that 
was ever offered to any civilized body. None of these 
poor, ignorant Catholics have come up here to ask to 
be relieved from this tyranny to which it is claimed 
they have been subjected. The people, who, from the 
commanding general of the army, General Sheridan, 
down to the lowest private in the ranks, have proved 
their loyalty to this country, who have shed their blood 
in battling for the maintenance of this Government — 
those men, when a different mission comes, and they 
are asked to perform something more peaceful, will be 
as true and loyal in the future as they have been in the 
past. Do not alienate them by such legislation as this. 
If those people have the suspicion, well grounded or 
not, that you mean to persecute them, I appeal to you 
to respect that suspicion. If you place this law upon 
the statute book, every man of them would glory in 
being arrested under the fourth section, and he would 
want no prouder and better title than that, in the cause 
of morality and conscience, he disobeyed a bad and 
unjust law. I say to you, gentlemen, pause. Let well 
enough alone. 

At the twelfth hearing, which began at 10 a.m., 
April 19, Mr. Gargan, cross-examined by Mr. Lund, 
said: The first section of the bill differs from the 
present statute in the substitution of the word "taught" 
for "furnished" in the clause, "or if such child has 
been otherwise furnished with the means of education." 
He objected to this because it implied the right of 
inspection, and he objected to any law that would, 



I50 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

even by implication, give the right of inspection of 
private schools: there never was any question as to 
the infallibility of the Pope; the question did arise 
as to whether cases should be decided by one justice 
or a number of judges, and the Ecumenical Council 
had decided that the Pope, sitting as a judge, should 
be the supreme judge, and his decision should be bind- 
ing. He was opposed to the section of the bill which 
would require the approval of private schools and the 
text-books used therein, because it was an infringement 
of private rights ; the bill had been covered with a thin 
veneering, but the veneer had come off; and, reading 
between the lines, it was perfectly plain that the bill 
was aimed at the Catholic parochial schools; he ob- 
jected to the section to impose a penalty for threats of 
social, moral, political or ecclesiastical disability, be- 
cause it would interfere with the individual conscience ; 
it might interfere with his conscience. In case his 
neighbor's daughter was attending a school where he 
believed immoral practices existed he had a right to say 
to that neighbor, "unless you remove your child from 
that school, my daughter shall not associate with yours." 
The main difficulty with the bill was the vagueness of 
the word "threat" ; there were judges in this Common- 
wealth who would construe almost anything coming 
from a Catholic priest as a threat; if the Catholic 
Church says that, in the opinion of the Church, in the 
domain of morals, a school is an unfit school, and a 
minister of that religion, in the exercise of his con- 
science, considers it his conscientious duty to say to 
those who seek his guidance and who ask his min- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 151 

istrations, "You cannot attend that school without dan- 
ger to your faith or morals/' that is a threat; and if 
he says to the person, "Under certain conditions you 
cannot be permitted the privileges of the Church, be- 
cause you do not obey that Church," that is a threat; 
he had no doubt that Catholic ecclesiastics had criti- 
cized and condemned the public schools, but no more 
so than had the Andover Review of 1887; no more so 
than had some of the most eminent Protestant divines 
in the United States; he had never heard of the arch- 
bishop's ordering the priests to refuse the Sacraments 
to people who refuse to take their children from the 
public schools ; it was right for the parent to send his 
child to the parochial school if such was the rule of 
the Church ; that parent need not remain in the Cath- 
olic Church one hour if he does not desire to; it is 
either "obey or get out," just as it is everywhere. 

Mr. Donnelly, in re-examination : "Do you know 
of any objection on the part of the Catholic Church 
to the public schools, per se, in any country ?" 

Mr. Gargan : "I never heard of any." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Does not the Church teach to her 
members the doctrine of free will?" 

Mr. Gargan: "Yes, sir." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Does not the Church teach that 
every man is the arbiter of his destiny and not the 
Pope?" 

Mr. Gargan: "Certainly." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Is not the entire organization of 
the Catholic Church devoted simply to bringing man 



152 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

to his Maker, rather than to interfering between man 
and his Maker, as the counsel suggests?" 

Mr. Gargan: "Yes, sir." 

Mr. Lund : "Now I understand the CathoHc Church 
teaches there is no salvation outside of it?" 

Mr. Gargan : "I have been always taught that no 
person baptized is outside of the Church. If a per- 
son has been baptized and has not neglected from 
sloth or other causes to inform himself of the truth, 
the Church does not say that person will not be saved." 

Mr. McEttrick: "Do you think the existing State 
standard of education for children for employment 
over eight and under fourteen of being able to read at 
sight simple sentences, as 'The dog runs,' or by writ- 
ing or scratching those words, is not a rather low one?" 

Mr. Gargan : "I think so." 

Mr. McEttrick: "Are you not aware that children 
in some manufacturing towns are allowed to pass into 
the factories without being able to read a line?" 

Mr. Gargan : "I have heard so." 

Mr. McEttrick: "Is not the present State standard 
of education in employment a dead letter?" 

Mr. Gargan : "I think it is practically." 

Edward Hamilton, a native of Taunton, a resident 
for many years of Boston, and a Congregationalist, 
was the next witness. He denied the right of any 
legislation to pass laws that would interfere with the 
rights guaranteed by our system of government; it 
was plain that the bill was aimed at the Catholic 
parochial schools. 

iWhile Mr. Hamilton was testifying, adjournment 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 153 

was made to 10 a.m., Tuesday April 23, when, at the 
thirteenth hearing before the committee on education, 
he was the first witness. He reiterated his assertion 
that the animus of the present movement was hostiHty 
to the CathoHc parochial schools. He quoted from 
Lord Chief Justice Gierke of Scotland as to the good 
work and beneficial influence of the parochial schools 
in Scotland. Continuing to quote at length from 
Robert Rantoul, Jr., and Hon. Charles Levi Woodbury 
relative to liberty of conscience and attacks on Catholics, 
there was an effort made to stop the witness on the plea 
that his testimony was irrelevant, but after some discus- 
sion he was allowed to proceed. He said there was not 
a college in the State that was not sectarian. For the 
past fifty years a majority of the overseers of Harvard 
University had been Unitarians; people of that faith 
sent their sons there, and it was generally recognized 
as the head and center of Unitarian ideas. Andover 
was also a sectarian school, and so was the college of 
the Holy Cross at Worcester and Boston College. Mr. 
Hamilton repelled with vigor the charge that the Cath- 
olics were disloyal. Who were Charles Carroll of 
Carrollton, Edward Lynch, Jr., and other signers of 
the Declaration of Independence but Irish Catholics? 
What would our fathers have done in the Revolution 
without the aid of Catholic France and such men as 
Lafayette, Rochambeau and De Grasse? The chairman 
said this was irrelevant, as no charge of disloyalty 
had been made against the Catholics. Witness re- 
torted that he was glad of it, for then there was no 
need of the proposed legislation. A great many quo- 



154 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

tations had been made from Catholic catechisms. 
What of it all? They were the doctrine in which the 
Catholics believed and had a right to believe, and it 
was merely their church discipline. 

Here Mr. Bicknell interrupted with a motion to 
limit the time of the witness. Mr. Hamilton said he 
was sorry that his views were so evidently disagree- 
able to certain members of the committee. Mr. Bick- 
nell withdrew his motion. 

Witness then went on to oppose the section of the 
bill relative to the approval of text-books, and said he 
would quote from Daniel O'Connell. Chairman 
Campbell objected on the ground that the committee 
could not summon Mr. O'Connell for cross-examina- 
tion. The witness closed with an earnest appeal to 
the committee to give the petitioners leave to with- 
draw. 

Arthur A. Hill, editor of the Haverhill Gazette, said 
he appeared as a citizen of Haverhill to protest against 
any change in the present law, and to say that he did 
not think there was any well-defined public sentiment 
there in favor of such change. To Mr. Donnelly wit- 
ness said that he was somewhat familiar with the 
French population of Haverhill, and so far as he 
knew they were in favor of parochial schools and also 
loyal to this country, with no desire to turn New 
England into a province of Quebec. Dr. Victor Mig- 
nault, of Lawrence, testified that the French popula- 
tion there, who numbered about 4,500, were in favor 
of parochial schools. His testimony and that of 
Theophile Vincent, of Lawrence, and Henry Bou- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 155 

langer, of Haverhill, was absolutely in line with that 
of the French Canadian remonstrants who had already 
appeared. 

To Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Boulanger said : he had never 
stated in Haverhill that Father Boucher had told him 
he must send his child to a parochial school and that 
he must be taught the catechism in French, nor was 
such the fact; he had told Father Boucher that he in- 
tended to give his child a French education, and 
Father Boucher had then advised him to have his child 
taught the catechism in French. 

The next witness called by Mr. Donnelly was the 
Rev. Joseph F. McDonough, of Taunton, Mass. 
Witness testified that he was born in Fall River, 
Mass., educated in the public schools of Fall River and 
at the Holy Cross College at Worcester, and in the 
Grand Seminary at Montreal; twelve years a priest; 
rector of the Church of the Sacred Heart, Taunton, 
in the diocese of Providence, R. I., of which Bishop 
Harkins has charge. 

Mr. Donnelly: "What is the argument used in the 
Catholic Church in favor of establishing parochial 
schools ?" 

Father McDonough : "The Catholic believes he is 
bound to provide for the education of his children 
fully and completely in mind, soul and body. The 
reason for establishing special schools in this country 
is to educate the mind of the child religiously ; in other 
words, that the child may receive a perfect education, 
to fit him for this life and not let him lose sight of 
eternity." 



156 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Mr. Donnelly : "Is there any objection made by the 
Catholic bishops and Catholic priesthood of this coun- 
try, or of any other country, against the public schools 
per sef" 

Father McDonough : "None whatever." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Then, when objection is made to 
the public schools by Catholic bishops or priests, or 
any other spiritual authority in the Catholic Church, 
what is the ground of the objection ordinarily, outside 
of special cases of the immorality of a certain school?" 

Father McDonough : "It is that the public schools, 
being attended as they are by children of all creeds, 
cannot give that religious education that the Catholic 
believes his child ought to receive." 

Mr. Donnelly: "That is, the conditions will be in- 
compatible?" 

Father McDonough : "Yes. Perfectly so ; and the 
Catholic feels obliged to provide some place where his 
children can receive the necessary instruction without 
offending the parents of children of other denom- 
inations." 

Mr. Donnelly : "What is the common opinion among 
bishops and priests of the Catholic Church and the 
body of the Catholic Church in reference to the separa- 
tion of the secular from the moral and religious 
training?" 

Father McDonough : "It is the common opinion that 
the child is not treated fairly; that it is not receiving 
the full education to which it is entitled." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Is it considered possible or reason- 
able that a thorough education in Christian morals can 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 157 

be given unless that education be enforced by religious 
training ?" 

Father McDonough : "No, sir." 

Mr. Donnelly here read the quotation cited by Mr. 
Lund in the eleventh hearing, from vol. Ill, pages 97 
and 98, of Cardinal Manning's 'Sermons on Eccle- 
siastical Subjects' and asked witness to explain it. 
Witness read from the preface of the volume, showing 
that the sermon in question referred to the contest 
between the Pope and Victor Emanuel, after the latter 
had possession of the papal states. Asked to explain 
the passage fully to the committee : 

Father McDonough : "It is a matter of history that 
ever since the time of Constantine the Roman pontiffs 
have exercised more or less temporal jurisdiction in 
Italy. At times it has been more extended and at 
times more restricted until 1870, when the French 
troops were withdrawn from Rome and the Holy 
Father was left to the mercy of Garibaldi, and the 
Italians set up the kingdom of United Italy." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Up to that time had the Pope exer- 
cised two functions and was he the ruler of a small 
territory, including the city of Rome?" 

Father McDonough : "Yes. He was besides that 
exercising the separate office of Head of the Church. 
The offices are entirely separate." 

Mr. Donnelly : "He was deprived at that time of his 
temporal power by Garibaldi?" 

Father McDonough : "Yes, and by those associated 
with him ; the Pope could not lawfully relinquish his 
rights. The invaders wished the Pope to say that he 



158 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

accepted the condition of things. The Pope said: 'I 
cannot; I must maintain my right.' " 

Mr. Donnell)^: "I believe that the main argument 
that has been used by those in favor of the temporal 
power is that it guarantees freedom to the Pope in the 
exercise of his spiritual functions?" 

Father McDonough : "Yes." 

Mr. Donnelly reads from Cardinal Manning: "I 
acknowledge no civil superior ... I am the director 
of the consciences of men." 

Father McDonough: "The Catholic Church, like 
every other church, claims to be the true church. To 
be consistent and logical, it is essential as Head of 
the Church that the Pope should occupy the attitude 
of director of the consciences of men." 

Mr. Donnelly : "He does not pretend to direct those 
who do belong to his church?" 

Father McDonough : "No, not against their will." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Reference was made in the article 
read to divorce. What does the Catholic Church teach 
in regard to marriage and divorce?" 

Father McDonough : "It teaches and has always 
taught and enforced that marriage is indissoluble." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Any disloyalty in the Catholic 
Church teaching that?" 

Father McDonough : "I do not see it." 

Mr. Donnelly : "What is the domain or province of 
the Pope in matters where it is claimed that his deci- 
sion as head of the Church is infallible; that is, that 
there is no appeal from it, just as in the United States 
there is no appeal from the Supreme Court? Under 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 159 

what domain or within what Hmits has the Pope in- 
falHble authority ? Does it extend beyond questions of 
faith and sound morals?" 

Father McDonough : "No, sir. It does not extend 
beyond these limits." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Has any priest or bishop the right 
to direct a man in the common concerns of life in those 
matters which do not pertain to morals and religion?" 

Father McDonough: "Such direction would be im- 
pertinent." 

Mr. Donnelly: "There have been priests who have 
interfered ?" 

Father McDonough : "Unfortunately there may be." 

Mr. Donnelly : "The Church is not responsible for 
them?" 

Father McDonough : "No more than for the lunatics 
in an asylum." 

Mr. Donnelly : "The children under your charge all 
go to the public schools?" 

Father McDonough : "Yes, the church is so bur- 
dened with debt that we are not able to provide a 
parochial school." 

Mr. Donnelly: "You have not excommunicated any 
parent for sending his children to the public schools?" 

Father McDonough: "A priest cannot excommuni- 
cate. That is reserved for the bishop." 

Mr. Donnelly : "He will not exercise this preroga- 
tive until after due inquiry such, for example, as Dr. 
Miner would institute in his church ?" 

Father McDonough: "Certainly not." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Is there anything you would like 
to add yourself?" 



i6o DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Father McDonough : "I want to say that I consider 
this bill as useless legislation. I can see no reason why 
it should be enacted. There are many private schools 
in the Commonwealth besides the Catholic. I should 
not be surprised if there .were some attended by chil- 
dren whose parents do not believe in God at all. I 
know nothing bad of the public schools. Who comes 
here to ask for this legislation? Not Catholic parents. 
They are protected enough. It is unnecessary legis- 
lation and so, harmful. I know of no threats uttered 
by any Catholic authority." 

Mr. Donnelly : "If any such thing be said, it is with- 
out authority?" 

Father McDonough: "Yes. In the first place the 
word 'threat' is very indefinite. Nothing of the kind 
is attempted. It is put here in such a way that it is 
morally offensive, and is aimed especially at Catholics," 

Mr, Bicknell : "What does a good Catholic desire as 
means of education other than that which the public 
schools now furnish?" 

Father McDonough : "The Catholics have not made 
any demands at all, I know that Catholics are per- 
fectly satisfied with the denominational system of 
national schools as it exists in Ireland and in the 
provinces of Quebec and Ontario, Canada. These 
countries have public schools with denominational 
teaching," 

Mr, Bicknell: "To what extent?" 

Father McDonough : "The catechism is taught every 
day." 

Mr. Bicknell: "Does that instruction run through 
six years?" 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL i6i 

Father McDonough : "Yes." 

Mr. Bicknell : "Is anything further desired than in- 
struction in the catechism?" 

Father McDonough : "History is a matter of quarrel. 
We want Catholic children to learn the facts of his- 
tory from the Catholic standpoint." 

Mr. Bicknell: "Is there not a general fairness in 
your town in the matter of text-books that satisfies 
you, as a good Catholic ?" 

Father McDonough : "I have not examined the 
text-books." 

Mr. Bicknell : "Have you any objections to the text- 
books in Taunton?" 

Father McDonough : "No, sir. I have heard no 
complaints in regard to them." 

Mr. Bicknell : "If I understand you, all you desire 
is to have the catechism taught?" 

Father McDonough : "More than that ; there is the 
general influence pervading a school. There is some- 
thing in the very air of Oxford University, for ex- 
ample ; and there is a special influence in the atmosphere 
of a school taught by a Sister of one of our teaching 
orders." 

Mr. Bicknell : "Is there anything immoral in the 
public schools?" 

Father McDonough : "I know of nothing immoral." 

Mr. Bicknell : "Do not the teachers enforce 
morality ?" 

Father McDonough : "They are perfectly well be- 
haved, and insist on the common principles of the 
Decalogue." 
II 



i62 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Mr. Bicknell: "Is there anything sectarian in the 
public schools?" 

Father McDonough: "No." 

Mr. Bicknell: "Have you seen anything sectarian?" 

Father McDonough : "When I was a boy, and went 
to the public schools, I saw evidence of a sectarian 
spirit." 

Mr. Bicknell : "That was an exceptional case." 

Father McDonough: "Yes; still the tendency was 
that way. Catholic pupils were few in number then." 

Mr. Bicknell: "Do you find it so to-day?" 

Father McDonough: "I suppose there is more or 
less of that spirit still. Of course, localities differ." 

Mr. Donnelly: "In reference to the religious senti- 
ment in a school, whatever there would be, would come 
through the instrumentality of the teacher?" 

Father McDonough : "Certainly." 

At the opening of the fourteenth hearing at lo a.m. 
Thursday, April 24, Mr. Bicknell reminded the com- 
mittee that the hearings had begun on March 20, and 
that this was the fourteenth. He moved that the tak- 
ing of testimony be ended to-day, the remonstrants to 
be given one hour and the petitioners to be given two 
hours in rebuttal. The motion was carried. Father 
McDonough, of Taunton, was recalled. 

Mr. Donnelly: "What is understood. Father Mc- 
Donough, by salvation within and without the Catholic 
Church? That question has been raised, and we 
would like to have your answer." 

Father McDonough : "Mr. Chairman and gentle- 
men, the Catholic Church teaches that Almighty God 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 163 

provides the means of salvation for every creature He 
has made. He does this by establishing His Church. 
The body of the Church, it is very plain, is made of 
the members who practise its faith. The Church 
teaches, besides, that there are others who belong to the 
soul of the Church; that if a man receive the Sacra- 
ment of baptism and practises a Christian life, avoid- 
ing sin, he may be saved. Further than this, there are 
a great many pagans and heathen who have never had 
an opportunity to hear Christianity preached. The 
Church allows us to believe that each of these has 
received sufficient grace to reach God. If they live up 
to the light given them, they may be admitted to God's 
presence. The Church is extremely liberal in this 
matter. It is wrong altogether to impute to the 
Catholic Church such doctrine as that within the hard 
walls of the Visible Church people may be saved and 
without it all, even those in good faith, must perish. 
It is a misrepresentation of our doctrine." 

Mr. Lund : "Do you regard baptism administered 
outside of the Catholic Church to be true baptism?" 

Father McDonough : "Certainly, if the proper form 
and matter be used, and with intention to baptize." 

Mr. Lund: "Whether by an ordained minister or 
not?" 

Father McDonough : "Yes, it makes no difference." 

Mr. Lund : "Is that the teaching of your Church ?" 

Father McDonough: "Yes." 

Mr. Lund : "You were asked if any objection had 
been made to the public schools, and I understood you 
to reply none whatever." 



i64 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Father McDonough: "No objection made because 
they are public schools." 

Mr. Lund: "Do you not know that bishops and 
priests have objected to public schools in America, 
calling them Godless, infidel and such ?" 

Father McDonough : "There may have been indi- 
viduals who have done so ; one of a thousand, possibly." 

Here Mr. Lund held up a copy of Father Jenkins' 
Judges of Faith and asked Father McDonough as to 
its weight as an authority, its circulation, etc. 

Father McDonough: "I do not know that any 
special authority is attached to it; it is his idea of 
things. I have never seen the book before." 

Mr. Lund : "It has Cardinal Newman's imprint. It 
would hardly bear that unless authoritative?" 

Father McDonough : "The Cardinal's name is here." 

Mr. Lund: "I understood you to answer that the 
Pope is infallible in matters of faith and sound morals 
and that from his decision there is no appeal. Do you 
account the Syllabus as infallible?" 

Father McDonough : "When the Pope speaks ex 
cathedra as head of the Church he simply defines a 
doctrine to have been revealed by Christ and to have 
been always believed by the Catholic Church." 

Mr. Donnelly: "When you say ex cathedra do you 
mean officially?" 

Father McDonough : "Yes." 

Mr. Lund: "Was not the Syllabus spoken by him 
officially as the head of the Church?" 

Father McDonough: "Yes; but it is a condemna- 
tion of errors, and not a definition of faith." 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 



165 



Mr. Lund : "When does the Pope speak ex 
cathedra?" 

Father McDonough : "When the Pope as the head 
of the Church, declaring himself to be the head of the 
Church, defines a certain matter to be a dogma of 
faith." 

Mr. Lund : "Is it not particularly enjoined on 
Catholic framers to make constitutions to conform to 
the teachings of the Church?" 

Father McDonough : "I never heard of it. The 
Pope, so far as I know, keeps out of politics, and does 
not direct Catholics, except where there is a question 
of right or wrong." 

Mr. Lund reads from an encyclical letter of 
November i, 1885 : " 'Every Catholic should adhere to 
the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. We 
exhort all Catholics who devote attention to public 
affairs to take a part and to further the principles of 
the Church in all public service, meetings and gather- 
ings. They must make themselves felt in political life. 
They must penetrate everywhere, if possible. All 
Catholics should do all in their power to cause consti- 
tutions of States and Legislatures to be modeled on 
the principles of the true Church.' Is that contained 
in the encyclical letter of November i, 1885?" 

Father McDonough : "It may be a garbled trans- 
lation." 

Mr. Lund: "Is not this letter infallible?" 

Father McDonough: "It is an encyclical letter; not 
an ex cathedra definition." 



i66 . DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Mr. Lund : "Does the pontiff claim control of the 
education of children in the public schools ?" 

Father McDonough : "No." 

Mr, Lund: "Nor the right to interfere with the 
discipline of the public schools?" 

Father McDonough : "Not at all." 

Mr. Lund : "You say that religion and secular edu- 
cation should go hand in hand. How much time in 
the schools would you have devoted to the teaching of 
the catechism?" 

Father McDonough : "It depends on the size of the 
school and on the aptitude of the children. Generally 
fifteen or twenty minutes would do." 

Mr. Lund : "The catechism is not taught in connec- 
tion with other studies?" 

Father McDonough : "No." 

Mr. Lund : "What is the difficulty in teaching the 
catechism outside of the twenty weeks by the parent or 
pastor? Is there not ample time outside of the twenty 
weeks ?" 

Father McDonough : "For some people there may 
be. Some people take very good care of their children. 
Others have not the time to give the needed instruc- 
tion. In the manufacturing centers many of the par- 
ents work also. Besides that, you must understand 
there is an atmosphere pertaining to a school that 
gives it a distinct characteristic." 

Mr. Lund: "Then you object to the atmosphere of 
the public schools?" 

Father McDonough : "I do not object to it for those 
who want it." 



. DONNELLY MEMORIAL 167 

Mr, Lund : "Now supposing the parent thought 
differently from you?" 

Father McDonough : "I would force no parent's 
conscience." 

Mr. Lund : "Now, in your opinion, if the Catholic 
Church or anybody else does not desire by threats to 
interfere with the conscience of the parent, how is the 
fourth section an interference?" 

Father McDonough: "We do not use threats." 

Mr. Lund : "Then the fourth section does not inter- 
fere?" 

Father McDonough : "The fourth section is morally 
offensive. Practically, it will not affect us; but we 
feel it as a reproach." 

Mr. Lund : "You never felt it as a reproach to have 
a penalty against theft?" 

Father McDonough: "No." 

Mr. Lund: "Now, supposing you find our Univer- 
salist brethren trying to compel parents of the parish 
to put their children into a Universalist school, would 
it not be proper to have the parents safe-guarded ?" 

Father McDonough : "I think the parents would 
take care of themselves." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Now, Father McDonough, here is 
a question ; I direct your attention to it ; You were 
asked one question singled out of this book. I think 
it but fair the committee should have the whole thing. 
The question is, 'When does the Pope speak ex 
cathedra.' He speaks ex cathedra whenever he speaks 
in the discharge of his office of pastor or teacher of 



i68 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

all Christians; that means when he is speaking from 
the chair officially?" 

Father McDonough : "Yes. Exactly as the Chief 
Justice of the United States Supreme Court." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Supposing Chief Justice Morton 
should give an opinion, that would not be a decision 
of the Supreme Court, but would be an official 
opinion ?" 

Father McDonough : "Certainly." 

Mr. Donnelly: "To suppose another case: Suppos- 
ing the Pope in conversation with a number of gentle- 
men or before a committee should say that pulling 
apples off a tree, carrying them away and appropriat- 
ing them to yourself, was not larceny, but merely a 
trespass, — would the Pope be stating what is correct 
and true as a matter of faith or morals?" 

Father McDonough: "No." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Would any Catholic be bound by 
it?" 

Father McDonough : "No ; Catholics are supposed 
to be reasonable beings." 

Mr. Donnelly: "When you spoke of the deposit of 
faith, what did you mean?" 

Father McDonough : "That which has been revealed 
by Almighty God, and recorded in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures; also unwritten revelation, which we call tradi- 
tion, and which has been transmitted from mouth to 
mouth from the time of Christ." 

Mr. Donnelly: "In other words, from a time when 
printing did not exist?" 

Father McDonough : "Yes ; the first gospel, St. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 169 

Matthew, was not begun until eight years after the 
death of Christ, and the last book of the New Testa- 
ment was not written until nearly a century after 
the birth of Christ." 

Mr. Donnelly : "That is to say there were no re- 
porters and the word of God had to be transmitted 
from mouth to mouth." 

Father McDonough : "Evidently Christ intended 
that. He Himself wrote no book; and He told His 
apostles to preach and teach.'' 

Mr. Donnelly: "So what is now the Bible was for 
a long time in the minds and mouths of the people, 
and had to be carried along in that way and trans- 
mitted, just as the bards of Scotland and Ireland told 
the histories of the people ; and as Homer himself trans- 
mitted his poems?" 

Father McDonough: "Yes." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Then about this encyclical letter, 
and this long question put by Mr. Lund purporting to 
come from the encyclical letter; will you state if any 
such language is used by the Pope in any encyclical 
letter?" 

Father McDonough : "I should say not; am satisfied 
that no such sentiments could have been uttered by 
him ; and that the passage in question is not a fair 
translation from any document issued by him 
officially." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Where it says for Catholics to be 
sure to penetrate into the domain of politics, the trans- 
lation is entirely untrue?" 

Father McDonough : "Oh, surely." 



I70 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Mr. Donnelly: "Are the encyclical utterances in- 
fallible or believed to be so ?" 

Father McDonough: "They are given by the Pope 
in an official manner, not exactly as definition de iide, 
but as instructions to the people on matters of faith or 
morals." 

Mr. Donnelly : "They are entitled to respect ?" 

Father McDonough: "By all means." 

Mr. Lund: "Hov^ is it, Father McDonough, about 
the rulings of councils, as Ecumenical Councils?" ' 

Father McDonough : "When the decisions of the 
Ecumenical Councils are approved by the Pope we 
receive them as infallible authority. An Ecumenical 
Council is an assembly of the bishops of the entire 
world." 

Mr. Lund : "I suppose their doings are not published 
until approved?" 

Father McDonough: "Not officially published." 

Mr. Davis : "Does the head of the Church receive 
revelation directly from God?" 

Father McDonough : "No, sir. Never. Since 
Christ's day there has been no revelation from God." 

Mr. Davis: "Is there any revelation except that 
which is contained in the Sacred Scriptures?" 

Father McDonough : "And tradition." 

Mr. Davis: "Do you regard tradition as authority?" 

Father McDonough: "Certainly." 

Mr. Davis : "How do you determine its authen- 
ticity ?" 

Father McDonough : "By the decisions of the 
Church." 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 171 

Mr. Lund: "That determines the traditions?" 

Father McDonough : "Certainly. It determines that 
they have 3.1ways been in the deposit of faith." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Which are written now ?" 

Father McDonough : "Oh, yes." 

Mr. Davis : "Let me inquire if the tradition is re- 
garded as equally sacred with the Scriptures?" 

Father McDonough : "Precisely the same." 

Mr. Davis : "I would like to know if it would be 
safe or wise for the State to withhold all authority or 
withdraw all authority over the public schools or 
over the education of the young?" 

Father McDonough : "I think the State, Mr. Davis, 
could do so very safely, provided it punished parents 
who neglected the training of their children. I think 
the State ought to do that. I would leave the matter 
to the parent with that proviso. The parent is inter- 
ested in the child as much and more than the Legisla- 
ture can be." 

Mr. Davis : "Has the State a right to establish a 
standard of education for all young people?" 

Father McDonough : "I do not see how the State 
can interfere with the right of the parent in that 
matter." 

Mr. Davis : "Do you take exception to this state- 
ment: That it is the right and duty of the State to 
see that all persons who are to become citizens are 
properly educated?" 

Father McDonough: "No, sir. I do not." 

Mr. Davis : "How would it be determined without 
some sort of supervision or examination?" 



172 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Father McDonough : "As it is now when a person 
goes to be naturahzed." 

Mr. Lund : "I want to ask one question more. Is 
it not true that every word that comes from the Pope, 
speaking from the chair of St. Peter ex cathedra, is 
regarded as the voice of the Holy Ghost?" 

Father McDonough : "When the Pope officially de^ 
cides that a certain matter has been revealed by Christ 
and has always been believed from the time of Christ 
and his apostles, then we receive the dogma as God's 
word, and, of course, necessarily, as the word of the 
Holy Ghost." 

Mr. Lund: "Then you would regard that as new 
revelation ?" 

Father McDonough: "Not at all." 

Mr. Donnelly : "I suppose the Catholic Church 
founds this doctrine largely upon the text of the 
Sacred Scriptures, where Christ says : 'I am with you 
all days even to the consummation of time.' " 

Father McDonough : "Largely," 

Mr. Donnelly : "Then upon that other passage 
where Christ said : 'Thou art Peter, upon this rock will 
I found my Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it.' " 

Father McDonough : "There are many similar pass- 
ages in the Scriptures. The evidence is cumulative." 

After Father McDonough, of Taunton, Mass., had 
concluded his testimony, the Rev. Richard Neagle, a 
Catholic priest, of Boston, was called by Mr. Donnelly. 

He testified : "I was born in Haverhill, Mass., 
studied in the public schools of that town; was a 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 173 

schoolmate of Superintendent Bartlett; studied later 
at Holy Cross College, Worcester; made philosophical 
and theological studies at Troy, N. Y., now chancellor 
of the archdiocese of Boston, and for the past three 
years resident at the archbishop's house next to the 
cathedral." 

Mr. Donnelly: "As the result of your observation 
and knowledge of the place, are there any cells under 
the cathedral for immurement?" 

Father Neagle: "I saw a dead body immured there 
once." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Are there any cells for confining 
persons ?" 

Father Neagle: "None." 

Mr. Donnelly: "Would you allow Dr. Miner to go 
there?" 

Father Neagle: "I would not. He was invited 
once, and he refused to go." 

Questioned by Mr. Donnelly as to the report of his 
sermon in the Boston Herald of November 15, 1886, 
when preaching from the text : "Render to Caesar the 
things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that 
are God's," he was credited with this language . . . "If 
we shall have any conflict . . . then indeed as Catholics 
we need not hesitate to take up arms against the State." 

Father Neagle: "Governor Long put the question 
in good faith ; I am not going to suggest that he did 
anything unfair; I gathered from his manner that he 
did not think I was capable of using such language. 
That report appeared November 15, Monday morning; 
and on Tuesday the Herald published this letter from 



174 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

me (reads letter). These words were never spoken 
by me and I must decline to be held responsible for 
them." 

Further, Father Neagle said: "The sentiments are 
absurd. I hope those gentlemen who have for two 
years and a half quoted me as using this nonsense 
will be fair and do so no more." 

To Mr. Donnelly witness expressed his concordance 
with the testimony of Father McDonough on the 
extract from Cardinal Manning, the question of sal- 
vation within and without the Church and papal in- 
fallibility. Then came reference to the alleged extract 
from the papal encyclical "On the Christian Constitu- 
tion of States." 

Mr. Donnelly : "Please to read this paper, put in the 
case by the other side, and purporting to be correct." 

Father Neagle : "A report in the New York Herald, 
by Atlantic cable. Excuse me from commenting on 
that!" 

Witness further expressed surprise that when a 
correct copy of the encyclical was easily accessible, a 
newspaper cutting should have been put in evidence. 
Asked by Mr. Donnelly to treat it seriously, for the 
information of the committee, he said that while some 
excellent principles were embodied in it, it is evidently 
not a correct translation of any part of the encyclical 
in question. Asked by Mr. Donnelly for a statement, 
Father Neagle said: "I presume that with the peti- 
tioners who have been here it has been a distrust of 
Catholic parochial schools which occasioned a presenta- 
tion of this bill. Now we will be fair and tell them 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 17s 

what those parochial schools are for, and, if possible, 
dispel their distrust. When we want to know what 
the Catholic Church teaches we do not go to the indi- 
vidual priest or bishop even. We go to the authorita- 
tive statements of that organization. The most 
authoritative declaration on this question has been 
from the assembled bishops of the United States, who 
met four years ago last November in the Plenary 
Council at Baltimore. This question of education was 
one of the principal questions they discussed. The 
bishops enacted laws for the guidance of Catholics in 
the United States, and they also issued a pastoral 
letter or address to the people. This pastoral letter is 
not legislation; it is more in the nature of a sermon. 
It is simply pastoral instruction." Father Neagle read 
the paragraph relating to Christian education, which 
concludes as follows : "A one-sided education will 
develop a one-sided life; and such a life will surely 
topple over, and so will every social system that is 
built up of such lives. True civilization requires that 
not only the physical and intellectual, but also the 
moral and religious well-being of the people should be 
promoted, and at least with equal care." 

"They go on to say that this education ought to be 
a Christian education and training wherein rehgious 
and moral instruction shall go hand in hand with secu- 
lar training. Therefore, they tell the people that in 
their legislation passed in council they have ordered a 
parochial school to be erected as soon as possible in 
every Catholic parish throughout the land." Witness 
then read the substance of the decree ; then continued : 



176 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

"The Catholic school is the ordinary but not the only 
means of educating children properly. The child 
being educated at home or elsewhere and his faith and 
morals being satisfactorily safeguarded, the Church 
finds no fault. If for good reasons, approved by the 
bishop, the child be sent to the public schools, care 
being taken that no detriment come to his faith and 
morals, then it is positively and emphatically forbidden 
by the Baltimore Council and by the Pope himself to 
refuse the Sacraments to parent or child, or threaten 
such refusal, and it is only proper that the whole com- 
munity should know of it. I wanted to say a word 
about the bill ; why we protest, and when I say we, I 
mean the whole Catholic community, nearly half the 
population of Massachusetts, against this legislation. 
Against Section I, I protest because it gives parents a 
choice of only two or three alternatives when they have 
a right to others. They must send their children to 
the public school or an approved private school, or must 
prove that they are otherwise taught in the same 
branches of learning taught in the public schools, unless 
they have already acquired the same. There may be 
cases where the parent may say that he wants his 
child taught in different branches from those taught 
in the public schools and a parent has that natural 
right. The parent has the child directly from God. 

"In Section 2 we find the school committee are not 
allowed to approve a private school unless the teach- 
ing is in the English language, which I suppose means 
exclusively in the English language, which would pre- 
vent the approval of schools in which part of the 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 177 

instruction is in French, That I believe is the conten- 
tion of some of the petitioners who come here. Then 
again the law provides that they shall be subject to 
inspection and approval by a hostile jury. Take the 
city of Haverhill. In the city of Haverhill they have 
eighteen members of the school committee, nineteen 
counting the superintendent, and we would not find 
three members who would not honestly admit that they 
wish every parochial school to be suppressed; and 
yet parochial schools are asked to submit to approval 
by such a hostile jury. Now as to Section 4 it is 
insulting and offensive, and proposes to inflict enor- 
mous punishment on a man who might offend another 
man's sensibilities. It proposes also to dictate to the 
Catholic priest as to the administration of the Sacra- 
ments of the Church." 

Cross-examined by Mr. Long as to the report of 
a sermon in the Boston Herald, Father Neagle 
said : "I referred to a case where there might be a 
conflict between the civil law and conscience. All 
Christian people are familiar with the case of an appeal 
from an unjust civil law to the 'higher' law of God. 
The conscience decides what is God's or Caesar's — a 
Catholic naturally forms his conscience on the lines of 
Catholic teachings — the position of the Pope is simply 
that of a guide in morals whom Catholics recognize as 
infallible — morals being simply the science of right 
and wrong, the question of morals reaches wherever 
there is a question of right or wrong." 

Mr. Long : "Then the authority of the Pope would 
really extend to political questions?" 



178 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Father Neagle: "It extends to questions of right 
and wrong for Catholics." 

Mr. Long : "It is on that ground that they estabHsh 
parochial schools?" 

Father Neagle: "It is to provide a Christian edu- 
cation for their children." 

Mr. Long : "In Massachusetts where nearly one half 
of the population is Catholic the result of carrying out 
this decree will be, as soon as it can be done, that one 
half will be educated in the parochial schools?" 

Father Neagle : "That is the intended result." 

Mr. Long: "The result of that will be the destruc- 
tion of one half of the public schools?" 

Father Neagle: "It is not destruction." 

Mr. Long: "The intended result and the inevitable 
result of this decree will be that one half of the children 
in Massachusetts shall be taken out of the public 
schools?" 

Father Neagle: "And the taxation one half 
lessened." 

Mr. Long : "And it is on the ground that the children 
cannot be provided with a Christian education in the 
public schools ?" 

Father Neagle : "Distinctly on that ground." 

Mr. I^ng: "That policy you think permissible?" 

Father Neagle: "That is the policy of the Catholic 
Church, and there are no people more loyal to the 
Catholic Church than the Catholic people of Massa- 
chusetts." 

Father Neagle, in response to further questions. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 179 

strongly emphasized the loyalty of Catholics to both 
Church and State. 

Mr. Donnelly: "Would the Catholic priesthood of 
Massachusetts have any objection to the State super- 
vising education in denominational schools if the State 
supported them ?" 

Father Neagle : "They would be delighted with such 
common-sense solution of the question. The Catholic 
body is not opposed to public schools as such, but to the 
defects of the public school system, which no one will 
say is perfect. This system of purely secular education 
is not sacred and it is not American. It is the cause of 
education which is sacred. The fault of the public 
schools is a negative one. Their tendency is to teach 
by implication, and sometimes explicitly, that secular 
education is the whole of education, and children are 
brought to draw the conclusion that the religious 
question is of secondary importance. I know of no 
instructions from the Pope as to the public schools of 
Massachusetts. The Pope probably does not know 
there is such a place as Massachusetts, except as a little 
spot on the map." 

Asked by Mr. Long, who had been studying the 
abstract of the decrees of the Baltimore Council, 
whether if the child be sent to the public schools against 
the approval of the bishop, the Sacraments may be 
refused, witness referred him for answer to the decree 
itself, and said : ''The final determination in the matter 
of dispensing the Sacraments is with the Church. A 
man is free under the civil law to bring up his child a 
Methodist; but if he does so, surely you would not 



i8o DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

expect him to receive the Sacraments of the CathoHc 
Church." 

Mr. Long: "Certainly not; but that is not quite 
the question; I gather from this that if he send 
his child to the public school he does it at the risk of 
being deprived of the Sacraments." 

Father Neagle : "If he neglects the Christian educa- 
tion of the child he must take the consequences the 
same as if he neglected any other Christian duty." 

Mr. Douglas of the committee: "You believe in a 
democratic or republican form of Government?" 

Father Neagle: "Most emphatically." 

Here Mr. Davis of the committee undertook to de- 
fend the public schools, which he said had been ma- 
ligned. They were not purely secular. As far as 
could be done without exciting the prejudices of the 
religious sects, religion is taught. They teach what 
is contained in the Sermon on the Mount, and to culti- 
vate reverence towards God and all things sacred. 

Father Neagle: "I am aware that theoretically that 
is a part of the system, while in practice it is totally 
neglected." 

Mr. Davis : "Are you not aware that they teach the 
duties of man to man ?" 

Father Neagle : "I am aware that it is in consequence 
of attempting to teach that kind of morality the chil- 
dren are given the impression that such is the sum 
total of religion and morals." 

Mr. Davis : "Would you like to have the public 
school abolished and all education private?" 

Father Neagle : "Not at all. There is a large num- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL i8i 

ber of children whose parents prefer public schools; 
so far as religious bodies care for education, let them 
do so. In a State like Massachusetts a child brought 
up without education would be badly handicapped in 
the race of life. The State has a right to give the 
child, who would not get it otherwise, that modicum 
of education which it needs for citizenship." 

Mr, McEttrick : "You would be satisfied with public 
schools with denominational training?" 

Father Neagle : "Yes. That is the equitable solu- 
tion of the school question ; and I would like to say to 
Mr. Davis that I have no sympathy with persons who 
speak of the public schools as hot-beds of immorality, 
though they do not give our children the education we 
want them to have." 

To Mr. Long: "Catholic priests and people are 
wholly united in this matter, with very few excep- 
tions, and those who think otherwise are greatly mis- 
taken. The Catholics of Massachusetts, while loyal 
to the civil authority, are also faithful to their Church, 
and alive to the importance of training their children 
to be good Christians." 

After Father Neagle's testimony, which ended the 
evidence for the remonstrants, the Revs. James B. 
Dunn and Dr. A. A. Miner addressed the committee 
in rebuttal. The first-named based his remarks on 
Father Jenkins' Judges of Faith, and quoted the 
bishops of Vincennes, Ind., and Covington, Ky., and 
the archbishop of New Orleans, La., in denunciation 
of the public schools as "Godless," etc. To Mr. Don- 
nelly he admitted that he knew nothing himself of the 



i82 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

present conditions of the public schools in those states 
except what he learned from school committee reports. 
He had never heard of Archbishop Williams of Bos- 
ton, Bishop O'Reilly of Springfield, Mass., nor Bishop 
Harkins of Providence, R. I., denouncing the public 
schools. 

Dr. Miner read from Barnum's History of Roman- 
ism. He made some ugly references to the children 
of "foreign-born" parents, in contrast with those of 
the native element, and said if there were homes that 
were not competent to give their children proper reli- 
gious training and education, they were such homes 
as the "Romish" Church had made. Questioned by 
Mr. McEttrick as to whether he knew for certain that 
the boys who stoned his carriage were parochial school 
pupils, he replied that he had not inquired, but it was 
well known that in certain sections of South Boston 
there was a large number of young hoodlums. Where- 
upon Mr, McEttrick informed him that there are no 
parochial schools for boys in South Boston. 

Dr. Miner : "I have understood that the Church was 
more desirous of obtaining girls." 

Mr. McEttrick: "Was it a girl that stoned your 
carriage?" 

Dr. Miner: "No, sir; it was a boy." 

Dr. Miner was followed by Mr. Buckley, of Cam- 
bridge, who wasted half an hour in an incoherent per- 
sonal attack on Father Scully, of Cambridgeport ; and 
"Evangelist" Leyden, who indulged in a long tirade 
against Catholic faith in general. He made selections 
from the catechism and children's prayer book, and 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 183 

proceeded to display a wafer, such as is used by the 
Catholic Church in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. 

Here, to his honor be it said, Mr. Bicknell entered 
an emphatic protest, and Chairman Campbell brought 
the disgraceful scene to a close. 

The Green Room was densely crowded on the morn- 
ing of Thursday, April 25, for the closing arguments. 

The committee was first addressed by Mr. Nathan 
Matthews, Jr., counsel for several Protestant private 
schools. The private schools, he said, existed because 
many parents held they were superior to the public 
schools. The public schools were the outgrowth of 
the private schools. His clients were friends of the 
public schools, but he held that they should supplement, 
and not supplant, the private schools. The private 
schools, too, were valuable as experimental educational 
stations, as Colonel Higginson had pointed out. He 
objected to the bill, then, on educational grounds 
alone. 

Mr. Matthews dwelt on the history of religious 
proscription in New England under the Puritans, re- 
calling the time when the Episcopalians had suffered as 
much from it as the Catholics. He spoke of the appar- 
ent dying out of religious animosities in the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, and then of their late regret- 
able revival. The School Inspection Bill of last year 
had been thrown out of the Legislature. Its anti- 
Catholic spirit was too evident. We have seen, he said, 
the same spirit crop out in the last campaign in Boston, 
"the most disgraceful page in the municipal history 
of the city of Boston." Again, said Mr. Matthews, 



i84 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

the attempt which this bill makes to put the State 
above the parent and the family is rank socialism. I 
have been sorry to see high officials in this State favor- 
ing State socialism. The report of the State Board of 
Education last fall was nothing more nor less than 
one tirade in favor of State socialism. Mr. Matthews 
reviewed the legislation of Massachusetts on the school 
question to prove that it had not been the State's policy 
to place the child under the arbitrary control of local 
school boards, and continued : There is not a State 
or Territory in this country that interferes with private 
schools or the private education of the young. The 
Declaration of Independence is wholly opposed to any 
paternal government, and asserts the liberty of the in- 
dividual. The system of inspection of private schools 
which is proposed is bad and thoroughly un-American, 
but the proposed methods of enforcing it are worse yet. 
It was well known by many, and they were not all Cath- 
olics, that while the public schools were not immoral 
they were essentially unmoral. There were many 
Protestant private schools, such as St. Paul's and 
others. In Cambridge, for example, there were thirty 
or forty Protestant private schools to three or four 
Catholic. You cannot enforce this law, said he, if 
you pass it. You cannot force me to take my child 
from a private school and put him or her into a public 
school. I would like to see the minion of the State 
that would attempt to do it. The few small people 
who are advocating this measure do not represent the 
Protestants of Massachusetts. I think they are about 
all here (laughter). The Protestants of Massachu- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 185 

setts repel the assertion that these people represent 
them. The animus of this measure has been plainly- 
shown. From the first word uttered at these hearings 
to the last it has been hostihty to the Catholic Church. 
If the Supreme Court shall hold that our present statute 
does not prevent the maintenance of uninspected pri- 
vate schools, then we ask you to let well enough alone 
and let the statute remain as it is. If it shall hold 
to the contrary then we ask you to repeal it. 



CHAPTER X 

The following is the consistent, temperate, and cour- 
teous argfument of Mr. Donnelly on behalf of the 
remonstrants : 

Mr, Chairman and gentlemen: I think we may all 
congratulate ourselves on the fact that this hearing 
is drawing to a close. I think, in justice to you and 
to the gentlemen of the committee that the counsel 
representing both sides must admit that your patience 
has been very severely tried, and that under all the cir- 
cumstances you have borne the inflictions that have 
been imposed upon you by the counsel and by the 
audience with Christian fortitude and forbearance. 
I think it is well, too, to reflect on the fact that, 
throughout the whole of these proceedings, character- 
ized at times by a good deal of heat and by a great 
deal of excitement, that the relations between the coun- 
sel themselves have been of the most agreeable and 
pleasant character. 

And now in the discussion of this cause and what 

I may have to say in opposition to this bill I mean to 

say in the best and most catholic spirit possible, — that 

is, in the broadest sense of that word ; and if I should 

do any injustice unintentionally to any person who 

has appeared here, in behalf of the petitioners, I trust 

that it will be looked upon as unintentional rather than 

intentional upon my part. I think perhaps in the con- 

i86 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 187 

sideration of this whole question, Mr. Chairman, that 
it is a fair way — fair and logical — to look first 
at the motive behind this proposed measure. What is 
the motive of those who have been prominent and con- 
spicuous in presenting it, and in advocating it? Of 
course when I say that, I do not mean the counsel, 
because it is the duty of counsel to represent either one 
side or the other in any cause, and to present it as 
clearly and as fairly as possible. And it might have 
been my fate to have been retained by Dr. Miner and 
Mr. Dunn in behalf of the petitioners rather than that 
Governor Long should be their counsel, and I have no 
doubt but that if the Catholic body thought they could 
secure the services of Governor Long and had thought 
of him at the time and felt that he was free from his 
other engagements, they might have called upon him 
to present their case instead of calling upon myself, 
and no doubt he could have done it much more ably 
than I can. 

But the motive behind this movement is I think, 
the most important one for us to consider. If the mo- 
tive could appear, the logic of that proposition once 
admitted is that the motive must be bad, — i.e., it is 
a fair and natural inference that if the motive is a 
malicious or malignant one, if it is one founded in 
extreme sectarianism and bigotry, then it is fair and 
reasonable to assume that the measure itself is bad 
and that the adoption of it would be unwise and inex- 
pedient. People have instincts which very frequently 
are safer guides to action and to conclusion in regard 
to the conduct of men than any extent of reasoning or 



i88 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

argument would be, and have intuitions which are 
brought about by circumstances which may be over- 
looked, but which are the result of a deduction from 
unseen forces and causes, — things which are felt rather 
than things which can be considered tangible and sus- 
ceptible of absolute proof. There is, unfortunately, 
existing in the world, a great deal of jealousy of races, 
a great deal of jealousy of locality, a great deal of 
jealousy of sect. We seem to be so made up — human 
kind. I do not think that Massachusetts has been 
without her share of that feeling. The founders of 
this Commonwealth unquestionably came here to flee 
from religious persecution, or what was called religious 
persecution — to flee from the bigotry of their oppo- 
nents; and such is the peculiar condition of humanity 
that in a short time they, themselves, began to exhibit 
that intolerance which they complained of in others. 
That is a matter of history; and that leaven of 
bigotry which existed in the past has not entirely 
disappeared. It exists and prevails to-day. The only 
question is, to what extent — how far does it go, and how 
many in our Commonwealth and in our communities 
does it represent? My own belief is, and my sincere 
belief, as a Massachusetts man with an opportunity of 
feeling the pulse of the people, of ascertaining how the 
great heart of the Commonwealth beats, my own feel- 
ing is that the number of persons who are really 
bigoted in character in the different denominations is 
very limited indeed, but still, what they lack in num- 
bers they do make up in noise; and one of the most 
extraordinary peculiarities of these people is that every 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 189 

act they perform and everything they do they claim to 
be in the name and in the interest of the Christian reh- 
gion; and yet they are so intolerant in spirit that it is 
utterly impossible for them to realize, it seems to me, 
what pure Christianity is. Certainly if they take 
Christ as their exemplar, they do not follow Him. 
And then there is a spirit of Pharisaism about these 
people unknown to themselves — a manifestation of it 
that is most extraordinary, and at times exceedingly 
amusing. They set themselves up as being the only 
person who should be respected as Christians in the 
Commonwealth and they alone ; and unfortunately it 
is not limited to the uneducated few, but it extends to 
the pulpit itself. 

Now so far as the motive is concerned for this pro- 
posed measure and the character of the persons who 
are the advocates of it, I think that we can select two 
persons who are in this room as typical advocates of 
this measure. When I say typical, I mean as repre- 
senting the class. One of them is the Rev. Dr. A. A. 
Miner; the other is the Rev. J. B. Dunn. They have 
been the two most conspicuous men in this room in 
advocating the petition of the petitioners. They have 
sat by the counsel, they have constantly made sugges- 
tions and they have taken an active part as witnesses 
and as promoters of this measure. Now what are their 
antecedents, so far as toleration is concerned, towards 
their Catholic fellow citizens ? There are no two pul- 
pits in Boston whence the Catholic body has been so 
much misrepresented and so often attacked as from the 
pulpits of Dr. Miner and Dr. Dunn. I think that I do 



I90 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

not do either of the gentlemen the least injustice in 
saying that. There are clergymen throughout this 
Commonwealth who differ very widely from the 
Catholic body in their belief, but who, instead of de- 
voting their time to attacks upon them, and upon their 
priesthood, which, of course, is insulting to the body — 
who devote their time to something besides contro- 
versy, to something besides attacking other churches, 
who encourage their people by devotional and by 
doctrinal sermons and addresses, by the examples of 
their lives — who live as Christians, at peace with all 
men. 

Now I do not think that either of those gentlemen 
is in his heart malignant. But it does seem to me that 
there is a spirit of fanaticism existing there which is 
in keeping with the old and intolerant spirit of the 
past, as it has existed among alleged Christians in 
Protestant England, in Catholic Spain, in Protestant 
Massachusetts, in Catholic Italy. I do not mean to 
say that we have no Puritans in the Catholic Church. 
I know we have, and when I use the word "Puritan," 
I do not mean to use it in any offensive sense towards 
those descended from that class, but I mean it in the 
sense of persons who are bigots in mind and character. 
I know we have — I know there is no church without 
them and I know there are bigots in politics as well 
as in religion. And I say that they seem to be imbued 
with a spirit of fanaticism, and this movement origi- 
nates in that spirit, and they are the especial sponsors of 
this measure. They have stood by it day by day long 
before the petitions appeared in the Legislature, and 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 191 

they have nursed it sedulously all the way through up 
to the present time. I do not care about characterizing 
those behind them and those who are in this audience 
who look to them for example and for teaching in what 
is Christian and what is right; but I do simply say 
that they can be fairly characterized as the representa- 
tives and as typical of the class of people which seeks 
this legislation.. 

Now if the motive in view in advocating this mea- 
sure is bad, I said the measure itself must be bad. And 
that was and is a logical deduction, but there is some- 
thing else that I think it is fair for me to characterize 
and speak of. The Catholic body and the Catholic 
priesthood are spoken of very frequently as Jesuits, 
and as being a crafty, intriguing, cunning set of peo- 
ple who are always — not by you, Governor, nor will 
it be — but it has been said — no, it has not been said 
here, but I say it is said by such persons who are here 
and represented here — as crafty and cunning and in- 
triguing and treacherous, and working rather in the 
dark than in the daylight. Now I want to characterize 
the manner in which this measure has been introduced 
as the foulest piece of "Jesuitism" in the sense that 
they affix to that term, because there has been the 
utmost craft used in this whole measure from the 
beginning. It has been pretended that the interest of 
all those people who are promoting this bill is simply 
the innocent matter of the education of the people and 
the protection of those who are oppressed in the Catho- 
lic Church. How do they commence? They com- 
mence, not here in Boston by appearing prominently 



192 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

as the advocates, but they get the people in Haverhill 
to use them on the principle that the monkey did the 
cat, to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. They start 
in the city of Haverhill because they have had a slight 
controversy, and 'twas only a slight controversy with 
the French pastor and the parochial schools, and they 
get them to come down here to advocate a bill forbid- 
ding them to teach their children in the French lan- 
guage, and after they get them started on that, they 
put rider on rider on the bill until they finally end by 
putting in the fourth section in relation to ecclesias- 
tical threats. Now is there any other city or town in 
the Commonwealth appearing here and making any 
complaint to the Legislature of the existing law ? Not 
one, not one! And the superintendent of schools of 
Haverhill is thrust forward here, and he seems to be 
simply an humble instrument in the hands of these 
men who are far more astute and cunning than he is, 
and nothing more, and he begins, poor fellow, by telling 
you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that there is really 
a spirit and tendency here in Massachusetts and New 
England among the French people to make New 
England a new province of Quebec. And then, to 
maintain his assertion, he suggests that according to 
Charles Dudley Warner, who writes some very pleas- 
ant sketches, but who is rather inaccurate when it 
comes to statistics, that there are three quarters of a 
million of French Canadian people in New England. 
And then we look up the figures, and what do we find ? 
We find that there are less than two hundred and fifty 
thousand in all the New England states. He suggests 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 193 

the danger that we shall all become Frenchified. . . . 
The great trouble will be about acquiring as good a 
French accent as the superintendent of public schools 
of Haverhill has. (Laughter.) Then, when we 
come down to the merits of the controversy we find 
that the discussion itself between the pastor and the 
school committee was conducted in the most polite 
and agreeable way possible; that there was no hin- 
drance or opposition on the part of the pastor or Sisters 
in charge to a thorough examination of the school. 
The examination seems to have been a superficial one. 
There was a good deal of feeling excited, but a dispo- 
sition to be courteous on both sides, and a disposition 
on the part of the pastor and Sisters to yield to every 
reasonable demand of the committee. Then it was 
stated that the French people of Haverhill did not 
want parochial schools, but on the contrary that they 
wanted the children to go to the public schools. No 
one was brought down to support that statement ex- 
cept Mr. Desmond, and even he admitted that Section 
4 of the bill was aimed at the priesthood, and he 
was opposed to it, and then he spoke of being in a 
dingy schoolroom when a boy, but it turned out that 
it was when he was between six and eight years of 
age. I will not say anything more of him but this : 
That as between representative Frenchmen and Mr. 
Bartlett on the one hand and Mr. Desmond on the 
other, it seems to me an intelligent self-respecting set 
of men as they appeared to be — well instructed in the 
principles of their religion, they certainly ought to 
know what the French people v;ant. And then we 
13 



194 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

massed our testimony in from other parts of the State 
— it cost a great deal of trouble and the French people 
were aroused, and we found the universal sentiment 
to be the same, opposition to any State interference, 
and the sentiment among them was and is to leave our 
schools alone and leave our pastors alone. We have 
them from Worcester, from Lawrence, from Lowell, 
from Salem, from Marlboro, and from Holyoke and 
other towns so that it seems to me that we must have 
shown by superabundant evidence to you, Mr. Chair- 
man, that the French people are not in favor of such 
legislation and do not desire it. 

Now so far as the Irish Catholic body is concerned, 
they certainly do not favor it. There is not a soul of 
them coming here to advocate — not one; and as Dr. 
McGlynn said, "You had better look out," speaking to 
his audience, "you had better look out how you tamper 
with the Catholics in reference to their affairs, because 
blood is thicker than water." It meant that if an 
attack was made upon them, aimed exclusively at them, 
intended for them alone, that it would unite them to a 
man in opposition to it, no matter what differences of 
view they might have in minor matters; and that 
would be perfectly natural. 

Now if the French do not ask for this legislation, 
if the Irish citizens do not ask for it; if the German 
Catholic citizens, or the Italian Catholic citizens do 
not ask for it; if the Portuguese Catholic citizens do 
not ask for it, then why should this measure be 
adopted? Why should there be any interference in 
their schools? At a very large sacrifice to themselves 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 195 

they have chosen to erect those schools, to give the 
money to maintain them; they know what their reli- 
gion is and what it teaches, and know they are at 
liberty to send their children to the common public 
schools at any time and cannot incur any penalty or 
censure if they do so. I have been very fortunate in 
the witnesses I have had to testify in behalf of the 
remonstrants and the gentlemen who have favored us 
with their statements in reference to the doctrine of 
the Catholic Church on the questions which have come 
up in controversy. One of them, the first witness, is 
himself a Massachusetts man, of Massachusetts parent- 
age, and some suggestion was made in the course of 
the discussion and repeatedly made, and is made con- 
tinually outside, that the Catholic body is disloyal. 
That gentleman himself, without my knowledge of 
his antecedents, was able to say that he had been in 
the war and had served his country and that he did 
not find anything inconsistent with his Church in doing 
it. The other two gentlemen, if not of New England 
parentage are of New England fame and former pupils 
of the public schools, and I think they are good types 
of a good class — intelligent, well educated, plain 
spoken, discriminating, clear headed and fearless in 
the expression of their views. And one of them hav- 
ing been asked something about the loyalty of the 
Catholic body was able to say that his own father rested 
in a soldier's grave. I would like to refer you, Mr. 
Chairman, to the statement of Judge Carter. Judge 
Carter has been compared long ago in many ways to 
Abraham Lincoln in the rugged character and quality 



190 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

of his intellect and his straightforward, outspoken man- 
ner. He decided that case as he thought right and 
proper with the evidence before him and he said, "not 
only did the Legislature not mean what is stated on the 
evidence furnished, but it will be a long time before 
you get a Legislature in Massachusetts, in my judg- 
ment, to adopt any such measure." 

I think the testimony of a man standing as high as 
he does in that community for rugged honesty and 
rugged intellect ought to count for something as 
against the two or three persons who have come here 
to propose a measure so destructive of the peace of the 
citizens of this Commonwealth as this is — a man with 
years and experience on his head to guide and influ- 
ence and direct and to instruct others. 

Of course it has been claimed here, but I do not 
think that in view of all that has been said on the sub- 
ject it is necessary for me to discuss it — that the 
State is superior to the parent. That is a proposition 
which seems to be so unnatural and illogical that it 
does not appear tenable for a moment. I cannot see 
how any one can dwell in an intelligent community 
and come before an intelligent body to say that. That 
is the substance of it. The home is sacred, the family 
is sacred, the rights of the individual are sacred. The 
State never educates anybody; the parent does the 
educating and the taxpayer does the educating — not 
the State. The State provides the means for those 
who avail themselves of it and who are too poor to get 
it themselves, but the State is not the educator any 
more than it is the nurse of the child. The parents 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 197 

have the whole responsibility, expense, trouble and 
anxiety of bringing them up, bringing them up for 
the benefit of the State, but the family, as the chairman 
stated — the family must be maintained. 

Now there is that old hostility — Anglo-Saxon it 
may be called, and I have no objection to the term — 
existing against everything, that appears to be an in- 
vasion of the domestic circle. And we find it in many 
expressions that have passed into proverbs in our 
language, such as "Every man's house is his castle," 
and we find here among those who testified last year 
on this subject the testimony of the president of Har- 
vard University; and I do not think that he said any- 
thing last year that he would not say this year if he 
were called upon to speak; and we have the testimony 
of General Walker of the Institute of Technology, 
when he said last year regarding a measure which was 
not as objectionable as that of this year — "I believe it 
desirable that the measure should come from the people." 
No matter how wise the measure, I believe it should 
come from the constituents and from the subject of dis- 
cussion in the school districts. It never has. This 
thing has never come from the people ; it has never 
gone to the people. The testimony of President Eliot 
is : "It is for the interest of the entire community that 
the existing prejudice between the Catholic and 
Protestant population in this State, which has widened 
greatly in ten years, should be closed or healed and 
not widened by legislation. It seems to me that this 
proposed legislation tends to widen those differences 



198 .DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

and is therefore inimical to the interest of the entire 
community." 

Now we have had none of the educators, none of^ 
the thinkers, none of the representative men of the 
Commonwealth, with the exception of two or three 
who appear here at this table, who have advocated this 
measure. It does seem to me, Mr. Chairman, that it 
is not favored by the body of the people of the State. 
I made some reference to the large and increasing 
number of the Catholic population in this State, in my 
opening address. I have nothing further to say about 
it, because I do not think it is necessary to add any- 
thing except this : That where there is such a wide 
difference of opinion between the Catholic body on 
the one hand, and united with them a very large num- 
ber of persons of other denominations, and the so- 
called Protestants on the other side, or members of 
different churches, that even if it were more generally 
approved of — this measure by the Protestant portion 
of the people of the State, and I say that it is not, and 
I do not believe it is — that it would not be a wise 
thing to adopt it — that is, the end to be attained would 
not be of such a character — the end aimed at would not 
be of such a character as to justfy such experimental 
legislation. The peace of the community is of greater 
importance than anything else that we know of. Or- 
der is Heaven's first law. The peace and the well- 
being and the mutual good feeling that have existed 
heretofore in Massachusetts should be as far as pos- 
sible by a wise legislature, maintained. 

Now is it in the interest of sound education? Is it 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 199 

really intended or designed to be in the interest of 
sound education? The statistics I referred to in refer- 
ence to the education of the people of the Common- 
wealth show that the number of children engaged in 
textile manufactures is comparatively small — some- 
thing under three thousand, about one per cent, of the 
whole population — and they are principally engaged in 
that. The labor statistics of Mr. Wright, and I think 
the reports of the State police would make it appear 
less than that rather than more. There is, therefore, 
no considerable class of children, or no class of children 
of the Commonwealth who are neglected in point of 
education. The State does not, as the law stands to- 
day, enforce any education whatever upon its children; 
because it recognizes the utter inexpediency and 
impossibility of it. The State government affords to 
every child the opportunity of an education, but 
whether he shall be educated or shall not be educated 
must depend upon his parent and those having the 
immediate supervision of him. 

I do not know, Mr. Chairman, that I have anything 
further to say that would justify me in detaining you 
longer beyond this : That as a citizen of Massachusetts 
having its interest at heart, I personally am of the 
opinion that this measure should be defeated. I have 
no religious or sectarian prejudices that I am aware 
of. My education was largely among Protestants, and 
I think I have learned to know them and respect them, 
and I know that the intolerant spirit which existed in 
former years between the different denominations has 
ceased with the mass of the community. Probably 



200 . DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

nothing accomplished more to bind the people to- 
gether, in the north especially, than the war. I think 
we recognize that we have common interests and com- 
mon ends and common purposes and that what is for 
the good of a portion of the community must be for 
the good of the whole, and what is to the injury or 
detriment of any portion of the community must be 
of detriment and injury to the whole, just as one 
portion of the human body if affected by disease, 
no matter hoAV slight it is, the other part of the body 
and every portion of it, must be affected also. Now 
there is a diseased condition here existing in the minds 
of a certain portion of the people, but it is purely 
imaginary ; it does not exist as a matter of fact. It is 
thought that the foreign portion, the foreign-born 
population of this Commonwealth and their children 
are being neglected by their parents, and that with the 
aid of the superior intelligence and enterprise and feel- 
ing of the citizens who are native and to the manor 
born, these people can be raised to a higher position. 
That may be thought by some. I think that if you 
take the witnesses who appeared before us, even the 
French witnesses who are new to our country, its ways 
and methods, they will compare favorably with any 
portion of the average native population. I think, on 
the other hand, if you take as the representatives of 
the educated portion of the Catholics or Irish popula- 
tion, that Father Neagle and Father McDonough will 
compare favorably in knowledge of their duty and 
calling as citizens with the reverend gentlemen who 
appear on the other side. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 201 

I think, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that it is 
wonderful to observe the progress which the foreign- 
born element and their children have made in this 
Commonwealth and throughout this country when we 
consider the unfortunate condition in which, owing to 
misrule, misgovernment, penal laws, persecution of all 
kinds, which for centuries they have been subjected 
to, and to the condition to which they were reduced 
when they were forced to flee into exile. Whatever 
debt of gratitude they owe to this country they have 
amply repaid in war and in peace. There is not a 
town or city in this Commonwealth that does not owe 
its prosperity, its success and its wealth and its means 
of education, to the foreign-born population. The 
monuments of their industry are scattered all about us 
in every town and hamlet in New England. They 
have built also for themselves their convents, their 
churches and their schools, their charitable institutions, 
their homes for aged men and women, their homes 
for the fallen, their homes for the destitute — and if 
this is not evidence of a high degree of civilization 
and of education, and of the best kind of Christian 
culture, then I fail to know what is. 

Mr. Donnelly was greeted with enthusiastic ap- 
plause by his hearers at the conclusion of this speech. 

Hon. John D. Long then began his argument for 
the petitioners. He disclaimed at the outset all re- 
sponsibility for Messrs. Buckley and Leyden, but 
warmly praised the Revs. J. B. Dunn and Dr. Miner. 
Dismissing for what they are worth his compliments 
to the patriotism and the material and intellectual 



202 . DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

advance of the Irish element in Massachusetts, and 
his repudiation of any hostihty to the Catholics, which 
was followed by a fierce attack on the Church, we will 
simply set side by side the two representative passages 
of Mr. Long's speech. 

Referring to Father Neagle's testimony he said: 
"From the utterances of the Baltimore Council it 
logically follows, as surely as the night follows the day, 
that in the matter of education, Catholics regard the 
Pope as the supreme authority. The utterances of the 
Baltimore Council mean that the public schools of this 
Commonwealth, so far as the Catholics are concerned, 
must go. It means just that; that is the question we 
are facing. Let us drop all little religious bickerings 
and face the real issue. The real question is, whether 
you will stand by the Constitution, which says that 
there shall be no sectarian schools, or whether you will 
stand by this new idea which says that there shall be, 
and that the Commonwealth, through its Legislatures, 
shall not interfere with them. I assert that the ques- 
tion of the abolition of parochial schools has been 
raised not by the petitioners, but by the remonstrants. 
This bill does not close nor oppose a single parochial 
school; on the contrary, it opens the whole of them. 
There isn't a suggestion in this bill that attacks a 
parochial or a private school — not one. On the con- 
trary, this bill opens the way by which every parochial 
school and every private school in this Commonwealth 
can not only maintain itself by teaching the branches 
which are required in other schools, but may even have 
the approval of the Commonwealth, and if it pleases, 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 203 

secure a part of the money paid for the education of 
children. This bill does not compel a parochial or 
private school to submit to any inspection, but if it 
wants the approval of the school committee, and wants 
to be in line with American citizenship, it must open 
its doors to at least the eyes of the school authorities." 

After the applause from the anti-Catholic crowd 
in attendance had subsided Mr. Donnelly rose and 
squarely charged ex-Governor Long with his bitter 
attack on the Catholic Church, calling on him to re- 
pudiate it, or take the responsibility. Mr. Long made 
no answer. 

Chairman Campbell ruled the hearing closed; and 
the people dispersed in great excitement. 

In the face of the fact developed during the hearing 
that the Catholics numbered about two fifths of the total 
population of the Commonwealth, and in many cities 
and towns are in the majority, Massachusetts legislators, 
whatever their political affiliations or religious sym- 
pathies, began to shrink from open identification with 
the anti-Catholic school bill. While the hearings were 
still in progress, the House, to avoid the burden of a 
decision, appealed to the Supreme Court of Massachu- 
setts for an interpretation of the statute relating to 
private schools. The Court refused an opinion. 

A few weeks later, Representative T. W. Bicknell, 
for the majority of the committee on education, re- 
ported to the Legislature a bill which, though divested 
of the prominent anti-Catholic features of the Gracey 
Bill, was still so bigoted and inquisitorial as to be 
objectionable to all fair-minded people. Representa- 



204 • DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

tives McEttrick and Keane, of the same committee, 
put in a minority report setting forth the needlessness 
of any additional legislation. Various substitute bills 
were offered and debated, but that which finally passed 
both branches of the Legislature, with slight amend- 
ments by Repersentative Dubuque and Davis, was the 
bill of Representative Wardwell (Republican) of 
Haverhill, This bill did not change, but merely de- 
fined, the existing school laws; clearing Section i (the 
compulsory education statute) of the obsolete "poverty" 
and "half-time school" clauses, and explaining in what 
"the means of education" consist. 



CHAPTER XI 

The controversy as detailed in the preceding chap- 
ters had excited unusual interest throughout the 
country, and by the time the hearings before the legis- 
lative committee were concluded the general public 
had begun to ask for a definite statement of the posi- 
tion of the Catholics in the matter. 

At that period, and before the passage of Mr. 
Wardwell's bill, Mr. Donnelly was asked by the Sun- 
day Press to write for publication a statement which 
would make clearly apparent the question from the 
standpoint of the Catholics. This article was pub- 
lished May 25, 1889. The reasons for opposing the 
private school bill were given by him in a scholarly 
and comprehensive manner, and as a resume of the 
whole subject it is appropriate that his words should 
be here quoted in full : 

As counsel for the remonstrants to the proposed 
legislation against private schools in Massachusetts, I 
furnish a summary of the reasons for opposition to the 
bill of the petitioners : 

The discussion introduced in the Legislature of 
Massachusetts this year on the question of State inter- 
ference in the private schools of the Commonwealth, 
like the same question last year, originated with a few 
sectaries, who believe, as Bishop Warburton wittily 
said, that orthodoxy is their doxy, and heterodoxy is 

20s 



2o6 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

another man's doxy, and with the small-fry pohticians, 
who see in it an opportunity to benefit themselves in 
the excitement in the minor communities of the State 
attending an attack aimed at the Catholics. 

In considering the subject it will be well to under- 
stand that Massachusetts makes it compulsory on every 
city and town to afford the means of education to 
every child between the ages of eight and fourteen 
within its municipal limits. 

The same law provides that parents and guardians 
shall see that their children, when physically and 
mentally in condition to receive an education, shall be 
afforded one either at some public school or private 
school approved by the local committee, or be other- 
wise furnished with the means of an education — for 
example, by private, or home tuition. A parent neg- 
lecting to provide an education for his child is subject 
to prosecution and to a fine. 

Having summarized the law in reference to the 
tuition of children, the next subject to consider is the 
provision of law precluding manufacturers and other 
employers from taking a child between eight and four- 
teen into employment, unless he has for twenty weeks 
of the school year attended a public school, or a private 
one, approved by the municipal school committee, or 
unless he has been otherwise provided, that is, by home 
or private tuition, with the means of an education for 
the twenty weeks mentioned. 

The State, in looking to the education of children in 
Massachusetts up to the present time, has gone so far 
and no farther, and is not likely to proceed farther. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 207 

having a wholesome respect for the natural rights of 
parents over their children and a salutary dread of 
assuming the paternal policy in the government of her 
citizens ; for under our New England ideas of govern- 
ment, at least, every man is left to work out his own 
destiny and to acquire early in life the spirit of self- 
reliance, instead of looking to the State for direction, 
any more than he would for his religious instruction, 
his employment or maintenance. 

Massachusetts recognizes that she cannot compel 
her children to educate themselves ; she can only afford 
them by wise legislation the means of an education, 
and that she does. To prevent greedy or short-sighted 
parents or guardians from excluding their children 
from the educational advantages provided, and from 
sending them to work for others and for gain at too 
early an age, she requires that no employer shall take 
into his employment any child between the ages of 
eight and fourteen who has not had, at least for two 
fifths of the school year, the means of an education 
properly afforded him, either at his own home or in 
some school. 

The State's oversight of educational advantages for 
the child ceases at that point, simply superadding the 
requirement that every employer receiving a child from 
eight to fourteen into employment must see to it that 
the child's parent or guardian provides a certificate 
from the municipal school committee vouching that the 
child has been afforded the required means of an edu- 
cation within the school year previous, and is able to 



2o8 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

read and write simple sentences in the English lan- 
guage. 

So a dull or incompetent child may attend a public 
or private school for all the years between eight and 
fourteen, and yet when he arrives at that age, when he 
will cease to be under statutory oversight, he may not 
even be able to read and write simple sentences in the 
English language, and will not be required by law to 
do so at any time unless he applies to be admitted to 
employment between the ages prescribed. 

So Massachusetts compels cities and towns to pro- 
vide for children the means of education, punishes 
parents and guardians who neglect the educational 
training of children under their charge, and prevents 
children between the ages of eight and fourteen who 
are so neglected from entering employment. 

Among the statutory requirements in the educational 
training of children is that they shall be taught in the 
English language. The Canadian-French element, 
which has emigrated to the manufacturing centers and 
towns of the State, now numbers about 140,000, and 
they are very tenacious on three points : their lan- 
guage, customs and religion. 

They insist upon their children learning French, 
and making some of their studies and their religious 
catechetical studies, especially, in French. The public 
common schools do not provide for these requirements, 
and the result is that the French establish parochial 
schools, and send their children, especially the 5^ounger 
ones, largely to them. 

At Haverhill, a town of 22,000 inhabitants, where 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 209 

there are about 3,000 of the French people, a contro- 
versy arose between the French parochial school peo- 
ple and the local school committee early last winter 
and continuing- through the winter and to the present 
time, owing mainly to the weak elements of which the 
committee is constituted and to leaving the whole sub- 
ject largely in the hands of their superintendent, a 
young man of little or no experience in public affairs 
and not of the cast of mind which would fit him for 
the administration of the duties of an office requiring 
strength of character, with the faculty of conciliating, 
where there are contending and conflicting elements 
to harmonize and consolidate for the general welfare. 

The French Catholic and other Catholic parochial 
schools so far established in the State are under teach- 
ers who belong to the various teaching religious sister- 
hoods, and who are prepared for the work of instruction 
in schools and convents, and devote their lives to that 
object. 

In February last a complaint was made in the police 
court of Haverhill against a French parent who had 
his child, a little girl of tender years, in attendance at 
the French parochial school, on the alleged ground 
that he had failed to send her to school, that is, to a 
public school or private school approved by the munici- 
pal school committee. 

Judge Carter, before whom the case was tried, held, 
properly, that, as the evidence disclosed, the parent had 
furnished his child with the means of education by 
sending her to the French parochial school, where, 
it appeared, all the common branches were taught, 
14 



2IO DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

the parent had been guilty of no violation of law. 

The Catholic attitude on the school question in 
Massachusetts has been so far a defensive one. Catho- 
lics in Prussia, France, England, Ireland, Canada and 
the United States have, for half a century at least, 
claimed that the public schools should afford a religious 
training; that in the school education of a child secu- 
lar and religious training should go hand in hand. 

So Archbishop Hughes advocated over forty years 
ago in New York; so Archbishop Murray held at the 
same time in Dublin ; so Archbishop Lynch and Bishop 
Sweeney held and maintained in Canada, and so it 
was conceded by the government in Prussia, in Ireland 
and in some of the provinces of Canada, 

Many Protestant divines have advocated the same 
views in the United States and elsewhere. Dr. Bush- 
nell strongly pressed it in the Nem Englander Maga- 
sine in New Haven as early as 1850. Many private 
parochial schools exist throughout the country under 
the auspices of the Episcopalians and other denomina- 
tions who do not often favor ideas in common with 
Catholics on public questions. 

At the New England annual conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, held at Milford, Mass., 
in 1888, in a report concerning education, the confer- 
ence took the highest ground against a purely secular 
education, and quoted approvingly from Washington's 
farewell address, from Webster's argument in the 
Girard will case, Victor Cousin, De Tocqueville, 
Locke, Herbert Spencer and Huxley, sentiments in 
favor of blending religious with secular education. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 211 

They cited the language of Webster, in which he 
says : "In what age, by what sect, when, where, by 
whom has rehgious truth been excluded from the edu'- 
cation of youth? Nowhere, never. Everywhere and 
at all times it has been regarded as essential." 

Huxley is cited as saying: "I have always been 
strongly in favor of secular education in the sense of 
education without theology, but I must confess I have 
been no less seriously perplexed to know by what 
practical measures the religious feeling, which is the 
essential basis of conduct, is to be kept up in the present 
utterly chaotic state of opinion on these matters without 
the use of the Bible." 

I have spoken of the idea of combining religious 
with secular education as a Catholic one, but this is not 
strictly true, for it is an idea prevailing among men of 
different creeds and cherished even in pagan times 
among the learned in the more elevated forms of 
paganism, the principal argument being that it is 
almost impossible to impress morality and moral 
teachings on the youth of a country except through the 
instrumentality of Christianity and through Christian 
teachers. 

The parochial school system is not new to this State. 

It flourished in Massachusetts in colonial and pro- 
vincial times, when the Puritan church controlled in 
religious and secular affairs, and even down to a late 
date, under our present form of government, the min- 
ister practically directed in educational as well as in 
ecclesiastical affairs. 

It is well to refer historically to the provisions made 



212 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

early in Massachusetts by her colonists for common 
school education, while we remember that the present 
generation deserve no more credit for what their an- 
cestors did than the present Duke of Marlborough 
deserves for the victory achieved by the founder of his 
house at Malplaquet. 

The existing methods of school training are in fav- 
orable contrast with the makeshift policy of conduct- 
ing the common schools throughout the State a half 
century ago. 

Horace Mann was the innovator and reformer. 
More than forty years ago he gathered the fruits of 
his observation and study in Europe and molded our 
school system, giving it symmetry, uniformity and 
simplicity of character, besides directing public atten- 
tion to incompetent teachers, the ill-lighted, ill-venti- 
lated, poorly-heated and wretched structures used in 
the greater part of the State as schoolhouses in those 
days. 

Fifty-one years ago the State Board of Education 
was established. At the end of its first fiscal year, with 
Edward Everett as its chairman, such men as Jared 
Sparks and Robert Rantoul as members, and Horace 
Mann as its secretary, the Board began to puzzle them- 
selves over the problem which had been puzzling the 
brains of advocates of undenominational public schools 
long before that time, and has been ever since — that 
is, what good substitute the State can find for that 
religious teaching which is essential to the well-being 
of every child, and which is under our system banished 
from the public schools. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 213 

Horace Mann, in his first official report as secretary 
of the board, voicing their sentiments, says: "In re- 
gard to moral instruction the condition of our public 
schools presents a singular and, to some extent at 
least, an alarming phenomenon. To prevent the school 
from being converted into an engine of religious 
proselytism, to debar successive teachers in the same 
school successively inculcating hostile religious creeds, 
until the children, in their simplemindedness, should 
be alienated not only from creeds but from religion 
itself, the statute of 1826 specially provided that no 
school books should be used in any of the public schools 
calculated to favor any particular religious sect or 
tenet. 

Independently, therefore, of the immeasurable im- 
portance of moral teaching in itself considered, this 
entire exclusion of religious teaching, though justifi- 
able under the circumstances, enhances and magnifies 
a thousand fold the indispensableness of moral instruc- 
tion and training. Entirely to discard the inculcation 
of the great doctrines of morality and of natural 
theology has a vehement tendency to drive mankind 
into opposite extremes, to make them devotees on one 
side, or profligates on the other, each about equally 
regardless of human welfare." 

Just what Mr. Mann meant by "natural theology" 
we can fairly guess, but I am afraid not define very 
accurately. Seeing that religious training was ex- 
cluded from the schools, his logical mind was left 
groping blindly about for some scheme that might be 
resorted to which would bring about as good results as 



214 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

could be accomplished through ecclesiastical or reli- 
gious systems. 

Using the language of the Scripture in referring to 
the barrenness of school training in morality and the 
importance of it, he said : "Instead of the thorn shall 
come up the fig tree, and instead of the briar shall come 
up the myrtle tree." 

Again referring to the sad lack of proper moral 
training in the schools, he said : "Is it a matter of sur- 
prise that we see lads and young men springing up in 
the midst of us who start at the mispronunciation of a 
word as though they were personally injured, but can 
bear volleys of profanity unmoved; who put on arro- 
gant airs of superior breeding, or sneer with contempt 
at a case of false spelling or gramm^ar, but can witness 
spectacles of drunkenness in the streets with com- 
posure? Such elevation of the subordinate, such cast- 
ing down of the supreme in the education of children, 
is incompatible with all that is worthy to be called the 
prosperity of their manhood." 

Again, he remarks : "It is said by a late writer on 
the present condition of France to have been ascer- 
tained after an examination of great extent and 
minuteness that most crimes are perpetrated in those 
provinces where most of the inhabitants can read and 
write. Nor is this a mere general fact, but the ratio 
is preserved with mathematical exactness, the propor- 
tion of those who can read and write directly repre- 
senting the proportion of criminals, and conversely. 
Their morals have been neglected, and the cultivated 
intellect presents to the uncultivated feelings not only 



DONNELLY MEM0RL4L 215 

a larger circle of temptations but better estimates for 
their gratification." 

While Horace Mann lamented the alleged necessity 
of the State pursuing the policy of non-religious edu^ 
cation in the public schools of Massachusetts, and 
while in the absence of it he deplored the evil result of 
not being able to secure a sound moral training for the 
children of the schools, he saw no clear road out of 
the difficulty, but besought that a book of moral in- 
struction, adapted to the use of the schools, should be 
found or written and adopted by the municipal com- 
mittees who had the future well-being of the children 
at heart. 

And there is probably not a thoughtful man or 
woman in the State to-day, professing any form of 
Christian belief, who would not associate secular and 
religious as well as moral training with the school 
education of each child, if by common consent it could 
be accomplished with the approval of all sects. 

The most bitter sectaries, the most intense opponents 
of the Catholic Church will assert that religious and 
secular education should go hand in hand, but they 
distinguish and qualify the proposition by saying that 
it is not practicable in our public schools; that above 
all things our schools must be kept free from sectarian- 
ism, else the Hebrew, the Catholic, Protestant, etc., 
will each claim his form of belief should be taught. 

Dr. Miner, an old Universalist clergyman of Boston, 
admitted when questioned at the legislative hearing 
a few weeks ago that he had in the past publicly fav- 
ored the establishing of denominational schools among 



2i6 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

the Universalists, and that he still favored the policy 
of so doing; but they should be schools for those who 
had graduated from the public schools and had 
mingled with the children there first, and so subjected 
themselves to the process of assimilation, which makes 
every boy, as a prerequisite to citizenship, feel that he 
is no better than his fellows. 

It will be seen that Dr. Miner's position has this 
weak feature in it; that only the children of the rich 
could afford to avail themselves of such a post-gradu- 
ate course as he contemplates, and if the children of 
the poor cannot afford to go to the denominational 
schools of Dr. Miner they must eke out their moral 
and religious support from inferior and less privileged 
sources. 

I have seen it cited somewhere lately, from the 
United States census reports of 1880, that out of the 
native born white population of 1,320,897 there were 
2,070 adult native white convicts, being one to every 
638 inhabitants, in place of one to every 1,267, ^^ in 
1850. 

The thoughtful citizen will ask : Is this the result of 
a better enforcement of the criminal law? or is it ow- 
ing to the creation of more statutory crimes? or to 
degenerating influences from the influx of objection- 
able immigrants and their progeny? or from neglect 
or defects in the school training or home training of 
our children? 

The cause should be sought out and the evil reme- 
died. Massachusetts, owing to the diversity of her 
population, her many large manufacturing centers, in 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 217 

towns and cities ; the necessary migratory and shifting 
character of many of her inhabitants, owing to their 
tendencies to change employment and employers, and 
the facility with which they can get work within her 
territory, as well as the comparatively small area given 
to farming, and the limited number of agriculturists, 
must necessarily, in any census report, show a larger 
percentage of defectives of all classes than the States 
given more to agriculture and less to commercial 
pursuits. 

Home life in farming districts and home ties and 
influences have a charm about them that city and town 
life never afford, and a well-ordered home is the best 
nursery of virtue and religion ; but where such homes 
are wanting, where children are not instructed in the 
precepts of morality, religion or patriotism at the fire- 
side and the mother's knee, then the Church, whether 
Jewish, Catholic or Protestant, should intervene; but 
can the Church, in the little time given to children in 
the Sunday schools, once a week, or in the time after 
school hours, when children are wearied by the con- 
finement of the day? 

I have before said that the Catholics of Massachu- 
setts have so far been on the defensive in the school 
controversy. They cannot be said to have taken any 
forward or aggressive movement whatever. Yet they 
are charged boldly with having attacked the public 
schools. 

So ^sop tells us the ire of the placid wolf was ex- 
cited when he approached the stream, under pretense 
of drinking, and attacked the offending lamb, who 



2i8 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

was drinking the water lower down, on the ground 
that the lamb had disturbed the water there and so 
made it undrinkable to the otherwise peaceable wolf, 
who was higher up the stream. 

It may be that a few hot-headed, self-opinionated 
clergymen in the Catholic body have, in their flights 
of pulpit rhetoric, used extreme and denunciatory lan- 
guage regarding the public schools, because of the 
purely secular training given in them, and may have 
called the schools "godless," etc., but such language 
is not approved by right-thinking or sensible persons 
in the Catholic body, and certainly is not approved of 
by leading Catholic churchmen or laymen. 

On the contrary, it is disapproved and condemned. 
Catholics are not taught they commit a sin by sending 
their children to the public schools, or that they come 
under the censure of the Church. The public schools 
are not held to be objectionable because they are public 
schools, and because the State supervises them, but 
they are considered defective in not furnishing more 
than a secular education to children at that period in 
their lives when religion and morality must be im- 
pressed upon them, if ever it can be, and when the 
mind is in the most plastic and susceptible state to 
receive what is more important to the child's welfare 
and to the Commonwealth, to fit the child for citizen- 
ship, than all the learning in the world. 

The Christian view of education is that man is to 
be fitted for the eternal rather than the temporal, for 
"What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul?" 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 219 

There is a common impression among the fanatics 
and other queer people of Massachusetts and, perhaps, 
other ill-informed people, that the Pope of Rome exer- 
cises the greatest vigilance over the affairs of the 
State, even in municipal matters, and dictates the 
nominations for all the offices, from that of Governor 
down to the minor officers of the town, and among the 
same people there is a belief that he has given especial 
instructions to destroy the common school system of 
the State. 

It is probable that the Pope has as little information 
of the geography, political divisions and statistics of 
our Commonwealth as the average educated American 
gentleman has of the geography and religions, social 
and political affairs of Italy, and that, I assume, without 
disparagement, may be said to be very little indeed. 

The Pope has always been a bugaboo to the ignor- 
ant, under the different names they have given him, 
whether abstracted from the Apocalypse or borrowed 
from our vernacular. 

Catholics are taught to respect the head of their 
Church and the office he holds as Protestants respect 
the dignitaries of their churches. Catholics know that 
the Pope is not the Church, but that the body of its 
adherents compose it. 

They know that in matters of faith and morals 
simply they are bound to obey the teachings of the 
Church, and that in their conduct they are left to their 
own free will, and are responsible solely to God for 
any disobedience to the divine law. 

They know that the Church cannot maintain that 



220 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

an act harmless in itself is a sin ; that the Church can- 
not make that a sin which is not so in essence. 

They know that the Church directs man to God; 
that that is the function of the Church, but that man 
is answerable to God alone for all his acts. 

Every well-informed Catholic, and there are a few 
such in the world outside of the United States, as well 
as within it, just as there are ill-informed and well- 
informed Protestants, knows that his duty to his 
Church is distinct from his duty to his Government 
"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and 
to God the things which are God's" is a text of no 
doubtful meaning to him. 

It is true that the pastoral letter of the archbishops 
and bishops assembled in the Third Plenary Council 
of Baltimore in 1884 exhorted Catholics to establish 
parochial schools as early as practicable in their sev- 
eral parishes. This was an American council of 
American prelates, not of foreigners, and the reason 
for so exhorting the people is the old one: the defi- 
ciency of religious and moral instruction for the youth 
of the country in the public schools. 

But it is not claimed by any Catholic authority that 
the public schools per se are wrong, only that the pres- 
ent system is a defective one for attaining the best 
results. 

Catholic authority regarding the obligation of par- 
ents and guardians in the school training of their chil- 
dren is that children shall not be sent to a school in 
which their religion or morals will be in danger. The 
obvious duty of every Protestant parent, as well as 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 221 

Catholic parent, is stated in this proposition. It sounds 
like the merest platitude to assert it, yet it seems nec- 
essary to, for the information of many with confused 
notions regarding what Catholics are taught concern- 
ing the sending of their children to the public schools. 

The anti-Catholic movement in the Legislature of 
Massachusetts has its origin, as I have before said, 
among the petty sectarians of the State, among those 
who are known for their narrowness of creed and 
fanaticism for years. 

Not a single man of any prominence and recognized 
standing among the educated, thoughtful or cultured 
classes of the people came forward at the legislative 
hearing to advocate or indorse the proposed measure; 
its advocacy was confined to a fanatical and noisy set, 
who could not observe during the sessions of the hear- 
ing ordinary decorum. 

There is, perhaps, also a leaven of old social differ^ 
ences, of jealousy on the part of a diminished and 
diminishing number of that class of natives in Massa- 
chusetts, who, like the Chinese, are opposed to all 
foreigners, but the body of the native-born people of 
this State no longer entertain the old opposition to the 
foreign-born population. 

They are welded, native and foreign, together, firmly 
and irrevocably, and it will be impossible, in my judg- 
ment, to raise the old issue of Know-Nothingism suc- 
cessfully again. 

The objectionable features of the proposed measure 
are mainly: i. That it discriminates against private 
schools. 2. That it provides that the text-books used 



222 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

in private schools must be approved by the municipal 
school committee. 3. That the same committee must 
be satisfied that the teaching in the private school is 
equal to the teaching in the public school of the same 
locality. 4. That ecclesiastics and all others who in- 
fluence or attempt to influence parents or guardians of 
children, between the ages of eight and fourteen, from 
sending their children to a public school or private 
school, approved of by the local committee, by any 
"threats" of social, moral, political, religious, eccles- 
iastical disability, or any punishment or by any other 
"threats" shall forfeit a sum not exceeding $1,000 and 
not less than $300 for each offense. 

The animus of the entire bill can be seen in the last 
recited head, where the aim is to prevent any priest 
or minister from objecting to any public school, 
whether it be well or ill-conducted, moral or immoral, 
in the character of its teachers and attendants, good or 
bad in its methods, administration or even sanitary 
condition. 

The underlying objection to the whole measure is 
that such legislation strikes at the root of the natural 
rights of the parent, to whom God entrusts his off- 
spring and their nurture, training and education for 
this world and the world to come. 

The parent has the burden of the maintenance of 
the child, and not the State, which neither feeds, 
clothes nor shelters him, and as long as the parent 
does not fail in his natural obligations to his child he 
alone should have the right to decide where and from 
whom he shall receive his secular and moral training. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 223 

It is for him to say to whom he shall delegate his 
God-given authority, not the State. 

Last year President Eliot, of Harvard University, 
appeared in remonstrance before the Legislative Com- 
mittee against an anti-Catholic bill of a character not 
so subversive of the right of the citizen as the present 
one, and I am satisfied he is unqualifiedly opposed to 
the pending bill. 

The pretense that the motive actuating the measure 
is in the interest of sound education is the merest non- 
sense and hypocrisy, and no honest man credits it. 

I think the movement will be defeated, sharing the 
same fate as the measure proposed last year. There 
is every reason why it should, and there are political 
reasons among others. The Democrats of the State 
are anxious that the Republicans should commit them- 
selves to the advocacy of the bill, but the Republicans 
are wary, and their party managers view the bill with 
suspicion and distrust, and, I think I may add also, dis- 
gust at having to touch it directly or indirectly, 

Charles F. Donnelly. 
Boston, May 20. 

This published statement attracted as widespread 
attention as had Mr. Donnelly's management of the 
case for the remonstrants, and he received universal 
commendation from the press in every section of the 
United States. The Michigan Catholic, commenting 
upon his closing argument before the Legislative Com- 
mittee said : "He deserves well to be entitled the 



224 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Catholic Advocate of Massachusetts; and looking at 
the character, importance and purpose of the bill, we 
believe he deserves to be called the Catholic Advocate 
of the United States. We wish that all — yea, even a 
small proportion of the Catholic lawyers and public 
men of the United States, were made of such timber as 
Mr. Donnelly is made of." 

These were the words of one whose knowledge of 
the situation was that merely of a remote observer. 
In Massachusetts, the scene of the struggle, how- 
ever, it would be difficult to estimate the feeling of 
indebtedness of the Catholics towards Mr. Donnelly 
for his able, dignified and disinterested conduct of 
their case. 

Never flattering, never evading, never timorously 
qualifying; he was always sincere and fearless in the 
cause of justice and truth. He used his time and 
strength for the welfare of others, and his patient 
labors, manly sympathy and counsel were never marred 
by selfishness. His great loving heart was not over- 
shadowed by his strong, masterly and disciplined 
intellect. 

After the victory was assured, and the man who had 
worked so long and faithfully could rest from his 
labors, the question of remuneration naturally arose, 
and many were the letters that passed between Arch- 
bishop Williams and Mr. Donnelly at this period upon 
the subject. As compensation for his valuable time 
alone the latter would have been justified in demanding 
a large sum for services that had been all-absorbing 
and that proved to be epoch-making. Mr. Donnelly, 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 225 

however, not only refused absolutely to accept any re- 
muneration, but in refusing to render a bill for his own 
services he also made a present to the Catholics of 
Massachusetts of all the incidental expenses which he 
himself had assumed. 

Computed in dollars this gift represented a very 
large sum, but computed in dollars the debt can never 
be. In this one case the Catholics of Massachusetts 
owe Mr. Donnelly a debt that cannot be represented 
by a mere money value, and this one case of the school 
question is only one of many wherein he gave freely 
of his time, his erudition, and his money in the cause 
of right. 



15 



CHAPTER XII 

In his professional as in his personal life the domi- 
nating characteristic of Mr. Donnelly was his hu- 
manity, and this to some extent overshadowed his 
work as a lawyer. 

The late Edward Everett Hale said that "every man 
should have a regular avocation as well as a vocation," 
and with Mr. Donnelly his vocation was his avocation. 
He entered the legal profession not as a mere means 
of livelihood, nor with any sordid ambition, but from 
a love of truth, justice, and humanity, and in his 
fifty years of professional life he never faltered in his 
devotion to the highest and noblest ideals. 

The commercialism that in late years has marked 
the careers of many lawyers who have won wealth as 
well as fame never entered his professional life. He 
was a lawyer of the old school, believing law to be a 
science "whose origin is the bosom of God, and whose 
voice is the harmony of the world," and to every case, 
great or small, he gave the best of his learning and 
ability, never allowing the question of compensation 
to govern his labors. Indeed many of his most stub- 
bornly fought cases were for clients who could not 
afford to pay him and where, in fact, the entire amount 
involved would have been insufficient to compensate 
him for his expenditure of time and labor. 

Throughout his whole career he was habitually neg- 
226 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 227 

lectful about presenting bills for his services, and 
frequently none were ever rendered. As an illustra- 
tion may be cited the case of a poor and friendless 
Swiss, charged with murder, whose defense he under^ 
took with no prospect of a fee. After long and patient 
investigation he net only satisfied himself of the legal 
innocence of his client but also convinced the district 
attorney and the court, and secured a nol pross with- 
out a trial. Later he paid the expenses of the man to 
his home in Switzerland and felt amply compensated 
by the expressions of gratitude in numerous letters 
from the unfortunate man he had befriended. 

Many such instances of services rendered and help 
extended could be enumerated. 

To the discharge of his professional duties, whether 
in court or in his office, he brought high qualities of 
head and heart — profound learning, tireless industry, 
calm judgment, fixedness of purpose, extraordinary 
powers of persuasion, and an irresistibly charming 
and winning personality. He possessed that rare com- 
bination of the brilliant and successful advocate with 
the judicial temperament, and he would have adorned 
the bench as he did the bar. 

Never becoming a specialist, his large practice — per- 
haps as great as that of any Massachusetts lawyer of 
his day — embraced every branch of the law. While 
successful before both court and jury he will be longest 
remembered by the large number of clients who year 
after year benefited by his counsel and advice, and 
whose children, upon succeeding to the activities of 
business life, also sought his friendly guidance. To 



228 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

many of his clients he was truly the "guide, philoso- 
pher and friend" as well as the lawyer and counsel, 
and held to them as close and confidential a relation 
as that of the old-time family physician. 

Early in his career he became counsel for the work- 
men in the troubles arising- in the McKay and Aldus 
shipyard in East Boston, and the patient, painstaking 
and conscientious manner in which he fought for and 
established their rights and collected the small sums 
due each of them was typical of his subsequent work 
when greater and more important interests were con- 
iided to him. 

To write of the many important cases in which he 
appeared would extend this chapter beyond proper 
limits and only a few can be mentioned to show the 
wide range covered. 

Of the law relating to wills and real estate, as in 
other branches of law and equity, he was an acknowl- 
edged authority. 

Among his first important clients were John Gib- 
son's Son & Co., and his interpretation of the internal 
revenue laws passed at the beginning of the Civil War, 
given as their counsel, was very generally sustained by 
the courts and aided largely in establishing, early in his 
career, his high reputation with the bench and bar. 

For many years he was counsel for Archbishop 
Williams and the various charities of the archdiocese 
of Boston and as such, tried some notable cases, but 
his most important and delicate duties were rendered 
as counselor and adviser where his superior powers of 
diplomacy as well as his ability as a lawyer and his 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 229 

knowledge of Church history were constantly em- 
ployed, and to him more than anyone else is due the 
present friendly relations existing between the Church 
and the public. His labors in behalf of the parochial 
schools and Catholic education are treated of in the 
preceding chapters. 

Always a student he had mastered the principles of 
medicine and the science of medical jurisprudence, as 
was shown in the case of the widow of a policeman 
who applied for a pension two years after the death 
of her husband. The officer had not died in the per- 
formance of his duty and the effort of his widow to 
secure a pension seemed utterly hopeless. Although 
she was penniless Mr. Donnelly took her case and 
after patient and laborious investigation discovered 
that some ten years before his death the officer had, 
while in the performance of duty, received a severe 
injury. At his own expense he had the body exhumed 
and examined by an eminent surgeon, and after a long 
struggle succeeded in tracing the cause of death to the 
old injury and in securing the pension for the widow. 

This case illustrates in a marked degree his ingenu- 
ity, perseverance, and knowledge of medicine, no less 
than his ever-ready disposition to aid those in distress. 

Mr. Donnelly had the reputation of settling more 
cases out of court than any lawyer of note at the bar, 
but this was due to no lack of ability as a fighter. 
When any question of principle or justice or the pun- 
ishment of a wrong was involved he was powerful and 
untiring in conducting a fight, and no threats or con- 
siderations of policy could swerve him from the path 



230 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

of duty. Years ago a client had been robbed of mer- 
chandise valued at about $6,000 by an organized band 
of thieves working in conjunction with the notorious 
"Mother" Mandlebaum, at that time a well-known 
New York "fence." In spite of the disinclination of 
his client to proceed, Mr. Donnelly worked persistently 
for four years, and in the face of repeated warnings and 
threats of bodily violence finally succeeded in breaking 
up the gang and recovering the value of a large part 
of the stolen property. 

Again for a client who had been fined a small sum 
in the police court for removing his boy from a public 
school, preferring rather to give him home instruction, 
he, although in poor health at the time, carried the 
case to the Supreme Court and after trial won a ver- 
dict for the defendant. The amount of the fine 
imposed did not warrant such an expenditure of time 
and labor, but a principle was involved and that was 
sufficient to call forth his best effort. 

To his many other attractive qualities Mr. Donnelly 
added a keen sense of humor and in his hours of 
leisure, which were few, entertained his friends with 
reminiscences of his long experience. One of these 
was of a case of some local historical interest tried 
years ago at Barnstable. Mrs. Le Bau Berger, daugh- 
ter of Commodore Vanderbilt, during a visit to Cape 
Cod had become interested in a woman living there, 
and in a burst of generosity had handed to her bonds 
to the value of $50,000 and told her she might collect 
the interest as long as she lived. Upon the death of 
the woman it was discovered that she had disposed of 



- DONNELLY MEMORIAL 231 

the bonds by her will. Mrs, Berger retained Mr. 
Donnelly, and for the purpose of recovering her bonds 
he filed a bill in equity in her behalf. The question of 
fact as to whether the bonds were given in trust or 
absolutely was submitted to a jury after an unsuccess- 
ful effort to obtain a change of venue, and, as some- 
times happens, the jury disregarded the law and evi- 
dence and divided about equally, as appeared from 
subsequent disclosures, on a purely local issue. There 
were on the one side jurors who would never consent 
to allow the sum of $50,000 to leave the Cape, and on 
the other those vv^ho expressed themselves through one 
of their number to the effect that if the beneficiary 
under the will "gets that $50,000 she'll be so stuck up 
there'll be no living on the Cape with her." Finding 
themselves thus in hopeless disagreement the jury came 
in for instructions and asked the court if they could 
find that the petitioner had given part of the bonds in 
trust and the balance absolutely. There was, of course, 
no evidence to warrant such a finding, but the counsel 
on both sides, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, 
assented to such an instruction and a verdict was ren- 
dered for $32,000, thereby saving to the Cape $18,000 
of the $50,000 but at the same time reducing the bene- 
ficiary to a more humble state of mind. 

With a full realization of his responsibility to his 
client, abhorring sensationalism in every form, ever 
concealing the family skeleton from the public gaze, 
always preferring harmony to discord and peace to 
strife, Mr. Donnelly invariably counseled settlement 
and compromise where justice and right permitted; 



232 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

but when they were at stake there could be no com- 
promise — then" he would fight to the bitter end and 
until victory was won. 

In the war for truth, right, justice and humanity he 
was a brave and gallant soldier, and in every relation 
of life he was a polished and cultured gentleman. 

In 1895 th^ Boston Daily Globe asked several rep- 
resentative lawyers to give their opinion on "How to 
become a successful lawyer." Mr, Donnelly's response 
was characteristic in that it expressed the very essence 
of the creed that he had made for himself and by which 
he lived and did his work. Under date of December 
15, he wrote: "The advice men require who are 
about to commence the study of law does not differ 
from that which men should receive in preparing for 
any calling in life demanding honesty, intelligence, 
good health and industry. At the outset a student of 
law should be well equipped in academic studies if he 
would avoid being handicapped through his career 
and be compelled to follow usually in the lower walks 
of the profession. Nature, not the college, makes the 
man ; but a thorough training in the schools will equip 
him for the work of life as nature never does and 
never can — I mean the best schools, not those which 
are institutions of learning in little but name and their 
parchment certificates of graduation. 

"The course of professional studies a man should 
pursue in preparing for a life to be devoted to law must 
include not only a sound law school training, but a 
knowledge of the modus operandi of law ; a thorough 
knowledge of the practice, which is only obtainable in 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 233 

a good law office, for "practice makes perfect," that 
is, makes a man self-reliant, prompt and ready in his 
work. The average young physician who neglects, in 
student life, the hospital clinics and dispensary work, 
has to fill a good-sized graveyard before he can be 
qualified to treat the sick judiciously, and any young 
lawyer without a knowledge of practice is shelved 
early, or gets his unfortunate clients stranded often 
before he can pilot one safely through the intricacies 
of a case of law. 

"How to become a successful lawyer involves the 
varying definitions of the word success. The popular 
and common idea of success in law practice is solely 
to have made money. But it would be better for a 
man never to choose any honorable profession than to 
follow it with an ignoble end in view, that is, with a 
view merely to money-making. 

"The minister, lawyer, or doctor, having that as his 
chief aim, will be found untrustworthy in his calling, 
and his very presence is a menace to the harmony and 
welfare of the community in which he may live. The 
minister should be a teacher and comforter ; the lawyer 
the champion of the wronged and exponent of right; 
the doctor the alleviator of suffering. The really suc- 
cessful lawyer is the man who is learned in his calling 
and courageous and just in the exercise of it ; disposed 
to settle disputes without undue concessions, rather 
than to encourage contention. Such a man is entitled 
to the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens and 
must succeed. 



234 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

"Commercial and industrial pursuits are followed 
mainly to make money and surround one's self with 
the comforts and luxuries of life; professional, scien- 
tific and literary pursuits afford little encouragement 
in the way of pecuniary rewards to the body of those 
engaged in them, no wide field for anything but dis- 
tinction, and that only to the limited few. Men who, 
to gratify their inclinations, choose the latter callings, 
must recognize that they should not be followed in 
any sordid spirit, and that at the end of a long and 
successful career they will be fortunate indeed if they 
have secured a moderate competence in addition to the 
confidence and respect of the community." 



CHAPTER XIII 

In 1890, in compliance with the vote of the State 
Board of Lunacy and Charity instructing Mr. Donnelly 
as a member thereof to inquire into the differences 
arising between Massachusetts and other states con- 
cerning indigent persons, he prepared a "Report on 
Burdens of Pauperism, etc., imposed on Massachusetts 
by other States." It is a well-known fact that at that 
time Massachusetts annually paid out more than all 
her sister states in New England combined for the 
relief and support of those in want and suffering, many 
of whom had failed for various reasons to acquire a 
settled residence within her limits. There was a gen- 
eral tendency in the towns of those states adjacent to 
Massachusetts to avoid the burden of support which 
they alone should carry, and to place the responsibility 
and outlay elsewhere. The recommendations con- 
tained in this report have since been acted upon by both 
State and federal authorities. 

It was not only the rights of the State he had in 
mind at this time, but the victims themselves of this 
condition became his personal concern, and he worked 
indefatigably in behalf of the stranded poor from Ire- 
land and other countries. Too many of these unfor- 
tunates were to be found in the Tewksbury almshouse 
with a pauper's death and the potter's field before 
them. His great heart was so touched by such a con- 

235 



236 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

dition that he inaugurated a system of correspondence 
between the inmates of the State poorhouses and their 
friends in Ireland and in other countries, the result of 
which was the return of many of these inmates to their 
native land where, through the efforts of Mr. Donnelly, 
they were enabled to pass their remaining days among 
their own kindred. He loved the poor emigrant and 
spared neither time nor money to make his sad lot 
in life more pleasant. 

At the request of the committee of distinguished 
prelates representing the Catholic Church at the 
World's Parliament of Religions held at Chicago in 
1893 ^^ wrote an exhaustive study of the "Relations 
of the Roman Catholic Church to the Poor" from its 
beginning. This was a comprehensive study of the 
whole subject, and was read before the Parliament by 
Bishop Keane, rector of the Catholic University of 
America at Washington. 

It was expected that Mr. Donnelly himself would 
read the paper, but a rearrangement of the program at 
Chicago caused the date set for presenting the paper 
to conflict with a very important engagement which 
Mr. Donnelly had already made. This was no less an 
occasion than his marriage, which took place in Provi- 
dence, R. I., September 21, 1893, on the very day upon 
which Bishop Keane acted as his substitute at the 
World's Fair. He married Miss Amy Frances Collins, 
daughter of James and Mary Donnelly Collins of 
Providence.^ 

"^ Patrick Donnelly, the brother of Hugh, married Marji 
McCusker. Their children were Dominick, Bernard, James, 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 237 

With the increasing growth of the CathoHc Church 
it became evident that complications would soon arise 
in reference to the matter of title to real estate and the 
efficient administration of affairs regarding eccle- 
siastical property. With this end in view, for at least 
ten years prior to 1897, Mr. Donnelly began an agita- 
tion looking towards the formation of a Corporation 
Sole. With characteristic diplomacy and shrewdness 
he gauged the sentiment of the Legislature with respect 
to securing such legislation, and perceiving that the 
time was not ripe in the State of Massachusetts, al- 
though several other states had already passed the 
desired measure, he carried on a campaign of develop- 
ment and education which was conducted with consum- 
mate ability and generalship. 

In 1897 he drafted the bill to incorporate the arch- 
bishop of Boston and his successors a Corporation Sole 
to hold and manage property for religious and charit- 
able purposes. The archbishop had been deliberating 
on this matter and was convinced that the course out- 
lined was the wisest to pursue. 

The bill as drafted by Mr. Donnelly was submitted 
to the attorney general who, after giving the matter 
much consideration, authorized him to say to the com- 
mittee on mercantile affairs that he saw no objection 
to it. In spite of strenuous opposition at an extended 

Patrick, and Mary. Patrick Donnelly, Jr., was a well-known 
business man in Providence, where he made his home with his 
sister Mary who married James Collins. Mr. and Mrs. Collins 
were the parents of eleven daughters, of whom the tenth, Amy 
Frances, became the wife of Charles Francis Donnelly. 



238 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

hearing before the committee Mr. Donnelly obtained 
a majority report, and afterwards, in spite of even 
more vigorous opposition, it was carried through both 
houses and he secured its adoption as law by the sig- 
nature of Governor Wolcott. 

It may seem strange at this day that not many years 
ago a priest who had forced his way into an almshouse 
in order to administer Extreme Unction to a dying 
Catholic was brought before the court on a charge of 
trespass! Such an incident indeed happened and in 
consequence Mr. Donnelly immediately set to work 
to prepare the text of a law which was afterwards 
passed giving the right to Catholic priests to enter 
all places where sick and dying Catholics may be 
found, and also the right to enter all State, city, and 
town institutions at all times for the purpose of 
celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, and visiting 
the sick. As a result of this law regular Catholic 
chaplains are now duly appointed to the larger public 
institutions. 

Mr. Donnelly was a power in politics in Boston, 
and might easily have been the first Catholic mayor of 
the city with non-Catholic Republicans helping to elect 
him. 

He was universally trusted as a model citizen, and 
admired for his courage and tenacity in presenting the 
often misunderstood cause of the Catholic people. 

But though he possessed and generously used his 
influence to procure many most creditable Catholic 
appointments in city and State, he himself never held 
a public office except the laborious and unremunerated 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 239 

place of a member of that commission now known as 
the State Board of Charity. 

It would be interesting- to trace the causes which led 
up to the establishment of this board in 1863, the his- 
tory of the three great State institutions at Tewksbury, 
Bridgewater and Monson, all of which have since 
changed in character from the purpose of their primal 
foundation with the immense growth and change in 
the population of the State; the gradual evolution of 
its splendid system of charities, and the wise policy in 
which Massachusetts led all her sister states in provid- 
ing proper homes for the State's minor wards ; but we 
are concerned here rather with the immense part which 
Mr. Donnelly as a leading Catholic had in this mag- 
nificent work. 

In 1900 his health failed, and from that year 
onward he began to withdraw, by degrees, from the 
active practice of his profession, still continuing, 
however, his interest in the work of the State Board 
of Charity, and having a more lively sympathy, if 
such were possible, for the welfare of the poor chil- 
dren in regard to whom some very important ques- 
tions were pending. 

The law forbidding courts to send children under 
the age of twelve to jail for want of bail or non-pay- 
ment of fines is the work of Mr. Donnelly also. 

It is noteworthy in connection with the services ren- 
dered by him for children that he always worked in 
harmony with the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children, whose agents were always ready 
to help him in those cases of neglect and of vicious 



240 DONNELLY MEM0RL4L 

surroundings which came to his notice and called for 
interference. 

The culmination of his work for Catholic State 
minor wards was in forwarding the passage of the 
famous bill of 1905 which secures most positively, 
definitely and comprehensively the right of every 
minor ward for whom the State may find a home, that 
in such a home it shall be brought up in the faith of 
its parents. Although the bill is framed on the broad- 
est lines of regard for the religious inheritance of 
children of every creed it is of especial value to Catho- 
lics because Catholic children had been the main suffer- 
ers in previous years. Even at the time of the 
introduction of the bill before the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature there was still enough of antagonism to it to 
smother it in committee. Mr. Donnelly, whose health 
had never been very robust, and who had been really 
invalided for several years previous, rose from his bed 
to save the bill. He made it again a live issue, forced 
it through its successive readings, and had it before 
Governor Douglas for his signature on the fourth day. 
While it protects the rights that were especially men- 
aced, those of the helpless and dependent Catholic 
child, it is equally efficient for the protection of the 
Protestant or Jew should these be assailed in the do- 
main of freedom of conscience. 

About this time the failing health of Archbishop 
Williams became a source of deep concern to his asso- 
ciates. A serious condition of the eyes necessitated an 
operation and this alone was one cause for anxiety. 
Mr. Donnelly was among those who were most af- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 241 

fected at the thought of the coming ordeal. The two 
men had been associated intimately practically for a 
lifetime. They not only had much in common but 
their characteristics were the same, and their friend- 
ship was deep and unmarred by any differences. The 
archbishop leaned absolutely on the legal judgment of 
Mr. Donnelly and felt for him, also, the tenderest affec- 
tion. The two men, alike, were reserved and unde- 
monstrative, and their solicitude for each other was 
for the most part expressed in their frequent exchange 
of letters which were couched in the terms of respect 
and courtesy of the old school. Upon learning of the 
contemplated operation Mr. Donnelly betrayed his 
anxiety concerning the health of his old friend in the 
following letter : 

16 Centre Street, Roxbury, Mass. 

Jan. 15, 1905. 
Most Rev. John J. Williams, 

Archbishop of Boston, 
Your Grace, 

I learn that you are about to undergo an operation at the 
hands of Dr. Haskett Derby, within two or three days. I beg 
to offer you my sincere wishes that it will be attended with the 
most happy results, through the mercy and goodness of God, 
and the prayers of those who are endeared to, and have looked 
to you as their Pastor, for care and guidance for so many years. 
I am confined to my home by rheumatism, or I would per- 
sonally call and pay my respects to you whom I have always 
deeply venerated and held in affectionate regard. 

Praying for your speedy recovery from the operation, 
Yours ever faithfully, 

Charles F. Donnelly. 

To this the archbishop, having recovered from the 
operation, replied : 
16 



242 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

Boston, Mass., March 27, 1905. 
Dear Mr. Donnelly, 

Although my eyes are not ready for work, I must thank 
you for your good letters to me when at the hospital, and thank 
also Mrs. Donnelly for her kind visits to the hospital during my 
stay there. 

I hope your health is much improved, and with good wishes 
to yourself and to Mrs. Donnelly, 

I remain sincerely yours, 

John J. Williams, 
Archbishop of Boston. 

Later his Grace asked Mr. Donnelly to write the 
history of the Catholic Church in the archdiocese of 
Boston for the Catholic Encyclopedia, an honorable 
task that Mr. Donnelly would have found extremely 
congenial, but which, on account of his own delicate 
health, he was obliged regretfully to decline. In a 
letter concerning this subject the archbishop took occa- 
sion to express anew his oft-repeated grateful apprecia- 
tion for the services which Mr. Donnelly had given to 
him and to the cause of Catholicism in Massachusetts. 

Boston, May 26, 1906. 
Dear Mr. Donnelly, 

The enclosed letter came this morning. Your name came to 
me at once and I decided that if your health and leisure permitted, 
you were the proper person for this work, especially for the 
second part. 

Yours of the 23 inst. has been received and I am well pleased 
to be able to pay my debt to you after such a long time. I am 
grateful also for all the work done for the diocese for which you 
send no bill. With the assurance of my sincere thanks. 

Yours very truly 
Charles F. Donnelly, John J. Williams, 

Counsellor at Law, Archbishop. 

Ames Building, Court St., 
Boston, Mass. 



^.^ ...t^c/ ^^:^<><v<^ .^.^^r-c^ /.^ z-..^^^- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 243 

The last of the archbishop's infrequent visits to any 
private house was to that of Mr. Donnelly early in the 
previous June. 

On the last day of August following (1907) the 
Most Rev. John J. Williams, D.D., who had governed 
the archdiocese of Boston for forty-one years, passed 
away in the eighty-sixth year of his age. 

His death was a keenly felt bereavement to Mr. 
Donnelly, who had been so long and closely associated 
with him as his chief legal adviser and as a trusted 
friend. 

Those who knew Mr. Donnelly best realized that 
his health was indeed grievously impaired when he 
closed his long connection with the State Board of 
Charities. Early in June, 1907, he sent in his resigna- 
tion to Governor Guild. 

"Your Excellency: — In September, 1875, the late Governor 
Gaston chose me to fill an unexpired short term of a citizen 
of the State, the late Samuel G. Howe. At the formation of the 
Board of state charities in 1863, being the first state commission 
in this country empowered to exercise the functions of such a 
body, Dr. Howe was elected its chairman and so continued until 
the termination of his membership. He sought, toward the 
end of a career governed by noble aims and impulses, well- 
earned rest, at last, from public service and duty, from his early 
youth, beginning with his eiTorts in the struggle for the inde- 
pendence of Greece, to the close of his unceasing labors for the 
alleviation of the poor and suffering of his own beloved state. 

"From my appointment to the Board, I have continued a 
member through all its mutations ever since, except during a 
brief period of the administration of Governor Butler, and have 
endeavored during the time of my service to discharge the 
several official duties incumbent on me faithfully, in common 
with those with whom I was associated. The remembrance of 
one honor conferred on me for several years successively by 



244 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

my associates on the Board I shall always cherish; and that is 
their election of me to the chairmanship of the Board, cordially 
and generously, all differing from, me in religious belief, but 
recognizing, in the true spirit of Massachusetts citizenship, the 
fundamental rights we hold to in common as Americans in the 
broadest, fullest and truest sense and meaning of the term. 

"With unfeigned regret that the condition of my health 
renders it imperative on me to retire from further service on 
the Board and with the utmost respect and esteem for Your 
Excellency, I have the honor to remain 
"Yours faithfully, 

"Charles F. Donnelly." 

To this Governor Guild on June 5 replied as follows : 

"Dear Mr. Donnelly : — It is with unfeigned regret that I learn 
that the condition of your health renders it necessary for you to 
retire from the State Board of Charity. For ho other reason 
could I be persuaded to accept the resignation of one whose 
labors of love on this important commission have been of such 
high value to the Commonwealth. 

It is given to few to serve for a full generation one of the 
most important of our State Boards. It is given to fewer to fill 
that generation with such useful work as you have performed 
for the Commonwealth. Your clear understanding, keen sense 
of justice and tender sympathy for the suffering have found full 
scope in this important position. 

In retiring from the Board, be assured that you carry with 
you not merely the gratitude and the high esteem of one who 
happens to l.old the position of Chief Executive at this time, but 
also, I feel sure, the warm respect and regard of every citizen 
of this Commonwealth. 

Very sincerely yours, 

Curtis Guild, Jr. 

It would be difificult to find a more just and more 
appreciative tribute than this of Governor Guild who 
most reluctantly, and not without earlier protest when 
it was foreseen, accepted Mr. Donnelly's resignation. 

In his long and earnest struggles Mr. Donnelly 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 245 

naturally had to create personal antagonisms. But as 
time went by, and the sense of justice was aroused, 
many who had been his fiercest opponents became his 
warmest admirers. 

The Spring-field Republican, which openly opposed 
him in past days, said : "Mr. Donnelly as a lawyer and 
a Bostonian has maintained a faithful level of service, 
and possesses that tact which has enabled him to work 
well with the notable associates he has had on the 
Board of Charity under its several changes, all of 
them positive and individual, but all fair-minded and 
concerned for the service of the people." 

The Boston Transcript wrote as follows : "The pub- 
lic verdict of 'well done, good and faithful servant' is 
likely to follow Charles F. Donnelly upon his retire- 
ment from the State Board of Charities, where he has 
served the Commonwealth and the people for practi- 
cally a generation. The position is one in which the 
discharge of its duties is likely to challenge criticism, 
and a public servant who can occupy it for more than 
thirty years and leave it with as clean a bill of official 
health as in the case of Mr. Donnelly has reason for 
large satisfaction. He has enjoyed the confidence of 
his associates and all who have had business with the 
board, and has earned the rest that is one of the re- 
wards of faithful service." 



CHAPTER XIV 

This memoir has been devoted thus far to the serious 
interests which absorbed Mr. Donnelly's life, repre- 
senting only the lawyer and the philanthropist, who 
was always the vigorous and assertive Christian and 
patriot. The work would be incomplete, however, 
without some expression of the more intimate aspect 
of the man. 

His ideas of rectitude were of the highest; he was 
most compassionate to the weak, always looking for a 
possible good intention behind a doubtful act, and 
discouraging harsh censure or criticism even where 
it was merited. Moral weakness in men of great ad- 
vantages, especially when it showed itself in mean- 
ness and treachery, was most abhorrent and well-nigh 
incomprehensible to him. But while he refused to 
have personal relations with the untrustworthy it 
would be easy to multiply instances of the noblest 
magnanimity in his dealings with such characters. No 
fault or failing on the part of the person who needed 
his influence or direct assistance would stay his help- 
ing hand. Averse by temperament from anything of 
an unkind nature he was always tolerant of human 
frailties and was the kindly interpreter rather than the 
harsh judge — the type of the "just man" of the 
Scriptures. 

His work on the State Board of Charities stands as 
246 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 247 

a monument to his courage, self-sacrifice, and fidelity 
to duty in the care of the sick and the unfortunate. 

To the non-Catholic public he stood as the highest 
type of citizen and official, and many of these lost by 
'degrees their inherited attitude against the Catholic 
faith chiefly because in Mr. Donnelly's daily life and 
methods were embodied the refutation of all that had 
hitherto been associated in their minds with Catholics. 
His influence was far-reaching, but it was always 
exercised for others and never for his own financial 
aggrandizement. He would succeed in placing the 
man or woman needing employment after the efforts 
of the men who were most visible and eloquent in 
public affairs had failed. He estimated a man's fit- 
ness for what he sought very quickly and accurately, 
but he never held out promises nor compelled the appli- 
cant to seek him again and again. The latter's knowl- 
edge of the progress of his case was often conveyed 
by a telegram summoning him to the work he had been 
seeking. 

Because of the character of his practice and asso- 
ciations it was commonly supposed that Mr. Donnelly 
was very wealthy, but to a man of his disposition the 
acquisition of riches was simply impossible. He was 
constantly giving, and his fees were very moderate. 
A claim was never pressed where it might occasion 
the slightest hardship, and the debts which out of kind- 
ness or delicacy he allowed to lapse would represent a 
goodly fortune. 

A man of the world and a shrewd lawyer, he brought 
unworldliness, or rather, other-worldliness into every 



248 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

detail of his profession. He had an apostolic zeal for 
the salvation of souls, as well as an American deter- 
mination to secure parental and citizen rights for the 
humblest. 

During the last few years of his life, when physical 
depression was frequent, he would rally at the call of 
friendship or charity and accomplish as great things 
for the individual or cause as in his prime. 

All through life he exercised a personal magnetism 
over all sorts and conditions of men despite the courtly 
reserve and dignified manner which impressed one at 
first acquaintance. Hence there were at all times men 
to cooperate in his plans and they acquired something 
of his own noble and disinterested spirit by so doing. 

Boston was the city of his choice and warmest affec- 
tion, and the field of his labors, but most of his numer- 
ous kindred resided in Providence and among them he 
sought from time to time a little rest from his manifold 
cares. Old and young among them looked up to him 
as to a tower of strength and an unfailing wellspring 
of affection. 

Mentally as well as physically he resembled his 
mother, a handsome woman of remarkable mind who 
retained throughout life, even amid the cares insepar- 
able from a large family, her fondness for intellectual 
pursuits. She attained the great age of ninety-two 
and always received from her son the tenderest care 
and utmost deference. For the last ten years of her 
life she resided with him. He delighted in her long 
life, her undiminshed mental vigor and keen interest 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 249 

in events, and her lightest wish was as a command to 
him. 

Mr. Donnelly was taller than the average man; his 
figure was slender and he carried himself very erect; 
his eyes were blue-gray and very expressive. From 
these windows of the soul the inner man was revealed 
— each changing mood disclosed. His hair was 
a pleasing shade of brown which advancing years 
touched with silver. He was scrupulously particular 
in matters of dress, adopting early in life a conserva- 
tive style which suited him and always conforming to 
it. This individualism and fastidiousness, together 
with his dignity of carriage, were contributing factors 
towards his distinguished appearance. His aspect 
was commanding and he attracted attention in his 
daily life, as he appeared in court or on the street. He 
had a pleasing speaking voice, the tone being musical 
and soothing, and his enunciation was very distinct. 
His singing voice, a tenor, although uncultivated was 
equally pleasing, and although he never was in the 
habit of singing alone yet he often joined in a chorus 
when a group of friends were singing the melodies 
he loved so dearly. Mr. Donnelly was a brilliant and 
interesting conversationalist, and what is much less 
common he was a courteous and kindly listener. Al- 
ways ready with an anecdote to suit every subject, and 
remarkably quick at repartee, he aroused others to 
mental activity with his epigrams and the stimulating 
freedom of his thought. His sentences were wonder- 
fully apt and, as he had a marvelously retentive mem- 
ory, his reminiscences, extending over a lifetime, were 



250 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

interesting and valuable in the extreme. Obviously 
his letters contained matter of more than passing 
moment, but those that have been kept, penned for the 
proper discharge of business or for description of 
travels, are for the most part of too personal a nature 
to justify their publication. In these, as in other forms 
of composition, Mr. Donnelly revealed the poet's deli- 
cate perception of the subtlety of verbal expression. 
His handwriting was characteristic — at times not 
easily decipherable, but of distinct individuality. 

Mr. Donnelly was so hard a worker and so absorbed 
in his many philanthropic interests as well as in his 
regular professional duties that it was with great diffi- 
culty he could be persuaded to take the holidays de- 
manded by his failing health. For many years he had 
not been robust and in 1900 a severe rheumatic attack 
left him with health much impaired. As soon as he 
was strong enough to withstand the journey he visited 
the noted Hot Springs in Virginia, and in the follow- 
ing year (1901) went to Sharon Springs, New York, 
and also to Mt. Clemens, Michigan. On all of these 
trips he was accompanied by Mrs. Donnelly. In 1903, 
his health still remaining poor, they went again to the 
Virginia Hot Springs. Here as elsewhere he was 
the center of an appreciative group. The hotel piazzas 
afforded a convenient meeting place and casual ac- 
quaintances were charmed with the dignified, courtly 
Northerner who proved to be such a genial and enter- 
taining companion. 

In a further effort toward regaining health Mr. 
Donnelly went to Battle Creek to take the treatment 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 251 

in the sanitarium, but it was difficult to impress upon 
him the necessity for care and caution. He did not 
appear to realize the need of giving thought to him- 
self; but little by little, and under the gentle compul- 
sion of home influences, he had to yield to something 
of his own needs. 

At his home his hospitality was that of a gentleman 
of the old school. Those who were of the inner circle 
of his friends weary not in recalling his consideration 
and minute solicitude regarding them and his unfail- 
ing cheeriness even after his health had begun to fail. 
Among his most welcome visitors at this time was his 
old friend and adviser, Dr. H. H. A. Beach, the noted 
Boston surgeon, whose magnetic personality imparted 
a feeling of strength and whose congenial conversation 
was most diverting. 

For twenty-two years Mr. Donnelly made his sum- 
mer home at Crow Point, Hingham. The house while 
in no way pretentious was most comfortable and home- 
like. A wide veranda encircled the house and was, 
in fact, the living room of the family. A luxuriant 
vine of the native clematis, or bridal veil, was trained 
over the entrance, with its masses of delicate white 
blossoms delighting the eye. Here in this quiet home, 
after the fatigue of a day in the city, he found rest and 
relaxation amidst surroundings eminently congenial. 

As a boy he was fond of outdoor sports such as 
skating, rowing, walking and fishing, and in maturer 
years his enjoyment of the last three continued un- 
abated. While a student at the Harvard Law School 
it was his custom to explore every bend and turn of 



252 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

the winding Charles River, and even after he began 
the practice of his profession he continued to row 
on the same river and was in the habit of repairing 
thither in the afternoon after the work of the day was 
over. This custom was discontinued only when in later 
life it became evident that he suffered from a serious 
affection of the heart. For many years he had been in 
the habit of spending a few weeks at Saratoga, or in the 
White Mountains. Often he would make a short trip 
to Gloucester for the purpose of fishing, or to Wachuset 
Mountain for a walking tour. As an ardent lover of 
nature it was his delight to wander leisurely through 
the country-side, or by the ocean, stopping from time 
to time to question a farmer concerning his horses or 
cows, or inquiring as to the state of his crops. He 
knew the life of the fisher-folk and was ever interested 
in gaining an intimate knowledge of the condition of 
those who lived near to nature. 

To a man of such interests Crow Point afforded 
much happiness. In the beginning he bought the home 
there for the benefit of his mother, and it proved a 
source of much pleasure to his friends and family. 

In 1894, and during his mother's lifetime, he ar- 
ranged to have Mass celebrated in his own home at 
Crow Point. Holy Communion was administered by 
Father Neagle, and five aged ladies received the 
Sacrament. 

Many years prior to this, in 1870, Mr. Donnelly was 
instrumental in having a Catholic service conducted at 
Hull, the first instance of this ever having been done 
at this place. The celebrant of the Mass on this occa- 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 253 

sion was Father James A. Healy, later Bishop of Port- 
land, Me., and the Catholics were enabled to hold their 
services through the courtesy of a Methodist congre- 
gation that let them have the use of their church build- 
ing and alternated with them in holding service. 

Many neighbors looked forward to the coming of 
Mr. Donnelly to Crow Point as something needed to 
make the summer complete. The cordial handclasp, 
the pleasant greeting and his kind words of advice 
were appreciated by both old and young. Even the 
mention of his name was always associated with some- 
thing pleasant. 

With all his innate dignity he dearly loved children, 
and they were invariably attracted to him. While 
always respectful toward him they were unconstrained 
and natural in his presence. His niece and godchild 
made her home with him during the summer months 
and he found both pleasure and recreation in watching 
the development of the young girl who loved and 
reverenced him as a father. The devotion of the little 
daughter of one of his neighbors was especially beau- 
tiful. The child felt that she owned him and her 
jealousy was very apparent when others monopolized 
his attention. She loved him from babyhood, would 
go to him from her nurse's arms, and he was her own 
best loved mate. His interest in young people ex- 
tended to any young man of promise. Those who 
were employed by him in any capacity all speak of 
him in terms of absolute devotion. In his office he 
commanded respect and expected unquestioned obedi- 



254 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

ence, but he inspired affection also in those who served 
him. 

During his whole life Mr, Donnelly was deeply 
interested in the history of Ireland and in the folk-lore 
of the people. This extended to a study and intimate 
knowledge of the genealogy of the various stems of 
the Irish race. He made a valuable collection of books 
on these subjects and, as he was essentially a home 
man, many of his evenings were spent in studies of 
this nature. Of late years nothing pleased him more 
than to find some book relating to these subjects and 
which could be considered authoritative. When such 
a book was brought to his notice it was his custom to 
order hundreds of copies and distribute them widely 
to such friends and acquaintances as he knew or hoped 
would be interested in the subject. 

He was also intensely interested in the Irish renais- 
sance, but he did not consider practicable the revival 
of the Gaelic language as a spoken tongue. 

Mr. Donnelly was never a clubman in the ordinary 
acceptation of the term, but with his varied interests 
he became a member of numerous associations. He 
was a proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum and of the 
Social Law Library; a member of the Union Club; 
director of the Home for Destitute Catholic Children 
and of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals ; president at one time of the Charitable Irish 
Society ; counsel for the Carney Hospital ; member of 
the Examining Committee of the Boston Public Li- 
brary, 1889-1900; and a member of the Inglewood 
Fish and Game Club of St. John, New Brunswick. 



CHAPTER XV 

The beginning of 1908 found Mr. Donnelly very 
low in health although his mind retained all its vigor 
and keen interest in affairs. A slight cold precipitated 
a crisis, and on February, his life was despaired of. 
Doubtless through the prayers of the countless bene- 
ficiaries of his good works the crisis slowly passed. 

It was eminently characteristic of the man that be- 
fore he was yet allowed to sit up and when conversa- 
tions of ten minutes were grudgingly allowed by his 
physician he began to settle a difficult problem for an 
old friend, and had the whole matter adjusted before 
he had recovered sufficiently to go to his summer home 
at Crow Point. 

Here his apparent gain was great. He lived as much 
as possible in the open air, and had not in several 
years appeared so strong and hopeful. The group of 
friends who knew him most intimately and whose 
society he especially enjoyed began to take comfort in 
recalling the longevity of his family — his mother hav- 
ing attained the age of ninety-two at the time of her 
death, and another relative, that of ninety-four. Now 
with the cares of office and of business so greatly 
lightened there was every reason to hope that Mr. 
Donnelly might be spared. 

On his return to Boston the improvement continued. 
He looked younger and better than in years before, 

255 



256 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

and he entered with much of his old zest into the cares 
of his friends, and was as quick as ever to solve a 
difficulty or lighten a burden. 

Then, early on the morning of Sunday, January 31, 
1909, without premonition of any kind, he passed to 
his well-earned rest. 

It was a sudden death, but he was well prepared. 
All through his life Mr. Donnelly had not only fought 
for his faith, but, a vastly harder task, had lived for 
it. During his years of invalidism he drew strength 
to endure his sufferings from much prayer, devout 
reflection and frequent Sacraments ; even as these in 
his stronger days had been the hidden sources of his 
power to achieve so much for the cause of God and his 
fellow creatures. 

During the three days that his remains lay placid 
in death hosts of men and women of every condition 
came to look their last on him, the aged poor, the 
struggling and the world-forsaken, deploring with 
bitter tears the passing of a friend on whose like they 
would not look again. 

The Solemn Mass of Requiem at 10 a.m., on Wed- 
nesday, February 3, at All Saints' Church, Roxbury, 
was celebrated in the presence of the Rt. Rev. John 
Brady, D.D., auxiliary bishop of Boston, and the Rt. 
Rev. Mgr. Thomas Taaffe of Brooklyn, N. Y., by the 
rector, the Rev. Charles W. Regan, who had been for 
years in closest spiritual relations with the lamented 
dead. 

The Rev. Richard Neagle, P.R., Church of the 
Immaculate Conception, Maiden, Mass., an intimate 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 257 

personal friend of the departed and associated with 
him on the "Home" Board, a witness in the memorable 
school contest and victory, preached. 

His text was taken from second Timothy, Chapter 
IV, verses 7 and 8 : "I have fought a good fight ; I have 
finished my course ; I have kept the faith. 

"For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of 
justice, which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to 
me at that day." 

The priest said : "The funeral service of the Church 
is not a eulogy of the dead, but rather a cry to the 
God of justice and mercy and love to have pity on the 
poor soul standing naked before the judgment seat. 
We come here not to praise the friend whom we have 
lost, but to pray for him, to join in offering the Holy 
Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, which was 
first offered on the cross of Calvary for the sins of the 
world. 

"But now, before the last prayers of the Church are 
said, and all that is mortal of our friend is borne away 
to its last resting place to await the resurrection, Holy 
Mother Church permits us to pause for a moment and 
take the measure of our loss in the taking away of 
this good man and faithful servant of God. It is not 
for his sake — for no words of praise from us can now 
help or harm him — but for our own edification and 
spiritual good. 

"It is an old saying, and a true one, that no man is 

necessary in this world, that God's work can go on 

without us, and it is a wholesome thought to keep 

us humble. But at the same time some men are doing 

17 



258 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

so great a work in the world and filling so large a 
space that when they are taken away they leave a 
great void behind them for a long time — and for many 
years Mr. Donnelly held such a place in our civic and 
religious life. 

"In seniority he must have been among the elders 
of his honored profession, for few, indeed, of the 
lawyers of Boston can have surpassed his long service 
of fifty years. In force of character, in mental endow- 
ment, in scholarly training, in clearness of vision, in 
precision of statement, in profound knowledge of the 
principles of law, in love of his profession as an instru- 
ment for advancing the reign of justice among men, 
you of his brothers and associates will, I am sure, 
agree that he was among its foremost strong men. 

"But his gifts, his zeal and activities were not con- 
fined to the limits and demands of his profession. 
Nothing human was foreign to him. He felt most 
keenly the wrongs of the land of his fathers, the dear 
old Emerald Isle, and he could wax eloquent in telling 
the story of her brave fight against foreign tyranny, 
her unbroken spirit of nationality, her undying re- 
ligious faith. 

"But what appealed most urgently to his heart was 
the cry of the orphan and neglected child right here at 
home. About fort3'--five years ago, toward the end of 
the war, it became evident that provision must be made 
for the great number of children who, directly or in- 
directly, were left homeless by that four years' 
struggle, and among the first to see the demand for 
shelter and protection for the little ones was Charles F. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 259 

Donnelly, then a young- man — young in years, but 
mature in wisdom. 

"With several well-known Catholics he helped to 
found the Home for Destitute Catholic Children, and 
to the last he remained a member of the board of 
directors — the last of the founders. And the Home 
which he helped to establish, and which owes so much 
to him, has gone its way all these years, spreading its 
sheltering arms over some 30,000 little ones and doing, 
I think, a greater work for children than any private 
charity in these parts. 

"Mr. Donnelly acted as Archbishop Williams' legal 
counsel for over forty years, and was especially promi- 
nent in the famous school cases before the Massachu- 
setts Legislature. That was about twenty years ago, 
but it seems much longer; so happy a change has 
come over non-Catholic opinion, so well now is under- 
stood the value of the schools to the State as well as 
to the Church. 

"It was beautiful to see the relations that existed be- 
tween these two great souls — the good archbishop whom 
we have not yet ceased to mourn, and Mr. Donnelly. 
Neither was much given to demonstrations of friend- 
ship, but many a time have I heard each speak of the 
other in terms of the warmest appreciation and ad- 
miration. Though their lines were cast in different 
places there was much in common between these two 
friends. They both had the same serene dignity, gra- 
cious and gentle, but never descending to familiarity. 
Both were utterly disinterested men, thinking not of 
themselves but of the welfare of others, not self-seek- 



26o DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

ing, putting away rather than reaching out for honors 
and distinctions. 

There was a time when high public office might 
have come to Mr. Donnelly if he had cared for it, but 
the only civic office he ever filled was one in which 
the duties were congenial to the promptings of his 
heart, and he gladly served the Commonwealth on the 
State Board of Charities for some thirty years. 

"All this public service and the duties of his pro- 
fession brought him in touch with all kinds and con- 
ditions of men, with men of different religious opinions 
and men of no religion at all. And while he could be 
'all things to all men' in charity, he was not the man 
to trim or minimize or compromise in matters of Cath- 
olic faith. He knew his religion thoroughly and could 
give a reason for the faith that was in him. He had 
a strong man's contempt for the weakling who has not 
the courage to defend the truth revealed by God. To 
his dying day he could make from his heart the simple 
act of faith which he learned as a child at his good 
mother's knee. In this faith he lived and in this faith 
he died. He has fought the good fight, he kept the 
faith, and we may well trust that he will receive the 
promised crown. 

"And now, my friends, surely you have not spent 
this half hour here in the presence of death without 
some reflection on the awful, solemn facts of life and 
death, the judgment, heaven and hell, the resurrection 
and eternity. And if God has put these thoughts into 
your minds and hearts, do not reject them, as you value 
your immortal souls. Take them with you as a shield 



DONNELLY MEM0RL4L 261 

and protection against the enemies of your salvation. 
Live always in the presence of God and with a lively 
sense of responsibility to Him, that so you may not be 
wholly unprepared when the time comes — as come it 
must, sooner or later — for you to die and go before the 
judgment seat of Christ." 

After the funeral innumerable letters expressive of 
sorrow and sympathy were received from widely dif- 
ferent sources by members of the home circle. Old 
friends, business associates and recipients of favors all 
manifested a sense of personal loss. From schools, 
convents and institutions came the acknowledgment 
of indebtedness both for wise advice received from the 
brilliant lawyer and the tangible favors of the tender- 
hearted philanthropist. 

Notices descriptive of his life and work appeared in 
the columns of the press even as far distant as Cali- 
fornia, and resolutions of condolence were sent to Mrs. 
Donnelly from the various societies and organizations 
in which he had taken an active interest. The State 
Board of Charity sent resolutions as follows : 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
State Board of Charity- 
State House, Boston, February i, 1909. 
At a special meeting of the State Board of Charity, held this 
day at the call of the chairman, announcement was made of the 
death of Charles F. Donnelly, for thirty years a member of the 
board, and for some time its chairman. It was unanimously 
voted that the following minute be entered on the Board's 
records : 

It is with sincere regret that we, members of the State Board 
of Charity here present, learn of the death of our most highly 
valued friend and former fellow-member. Identified with the 



262 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

charitable and reformatory interests of the Commonwealth, as 
well as with deserving and successful private charities, during 
a large part of his active life, he gave to these interests his time, 
thought, and labor, ungrudgingly. He gave, too, not in the way 
of formal service, but in all sincerity, and out of a hearty con- 
cern in the public and private welfare. His death is a great 
loss, not only to his many personal friends, but to the poor 
whom he so constantly befriended, and to the community at 
large. 

To the widow of our late associate, and to his surviving 
relatives, we extend our heartfelt sympathy. 

John D. Wells, 

Clerk of the Board. 

The following resolutions were received from the 

Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

to Animals : 

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

Animals 

Boston, February 17, 1909. 
Mrs. Charles F. Donnelly, 

16 Centre Street, Roxbury, Mass. 
My Dear Mrs. Donnelly: — At the regular meeting of the 
Directors of The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals, held to-day, the following resolution was 
unanimously passed : 

Resolved: That we deeply sympathize with the family and 
many personal friends of Charles F. Donnelly, Esq., recently 
deceased — a man eminent in various ways and universally 
respected. 

Yours cordially, 

Guy Richardson, 

Secretary. 

The Directors of the Home for Destitute CathoHc 

Children, the institution of which Mr. Donnelly was 

one of the founders and with which he had been so 

closely identified throughout his life, sent the following 

memorial. 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 263 

At a meeting of the Directors of the Home for Destitute 
Catholic Children held March eleventh, a.d., nineteen hundred 
and nine, the following vote was adopted, and ordered to be 
entered upon the records of the Corporation : 

Death has again entered the ranks of the Directors of the 
Home, and has taken from us Charles F. Donnelly, one of the 
founders of the Home in 1864, and who for the long term of 
forty-five years has been an able and influential member of the 
Board. 

It was mainly through his foresight and great charity that 
the Home was established and it was largely through his 
untiring labor and devotion to it in its early years that the Home 
has so successfully carried out the purpose of its formation; and 
the great work of the Home is a monument to his unceasing 
labor in its behalf. 

He was an able man in the profession of law and literature, 
and during his long life he was preeminently the leading 
Catholic of our great city and state, in his unselfish devotion to 
works of charity. 

He was a generous benefactor, cheerfully sacrificing his time 
and energy to the advancement and to the defense of charitable 
works. 

He was of a most modest, retiring disposition, an honorable 
man, a loyal friend, a generous helper of the unfortunate, and 
through his long and successful career, won and retained the 
high esteem of the bench, the bar and of his fellow-citizens. 

We deeply feel his great loss to the Home, and will ever hold 
in reverence his shining example of an unselfish, earnest and 
useful life, and his great service to the community, feeling 
assured that he has gone to receive the great reward so richly 
earned in his long and honorable life. 

( James W. Dunphy, 
Committee on Resolutions, } John P. Manning, 

( William J. Porter. 

This memorial was most artistically penned by Mr, 
Frank L. Wells. 

After all such expressions of appreciation of his 
goodness, love for the man and grief at his loss, 



264 DONNELLY MEMORIAL 

had been received another letter, addressed to Mr. 
Donnelly, was opened and read by his wife. This 
proved to be as high a tribute to the character of the 
man who had gone as any of the actual letters of con- 
dolence. In a far-distant city an old man had been 
thinking of his youth, and not knowing that the friend 
identified with those far-ofif years was no longer alive 
he had followed an impulse to communicate with him. 
The letter, coming at this time, proved a peculiar and 
touching tribute to the memory of Mr. Donnelly inas^ 
much as it revealed the fact that his character in young 
manhood's prime had been identical with that of his 
maturer years. 

The friend of long ago, under date of April i8, 1909, 
wrote : 

"Dear Charles : I address you as if our intimacy had con- 
tinued without a break since the middle of the last century, which 
in fact was the time it began. . . . You perhaps ask why should 
I on its account trouble a business man with a matter trifling to 
him ? My only reason is that it has occurred to me that when two 
men travel part of a long journey in company for a little distance 
and good is communicated from one to the other before their 
roads diverge, the separation lasting nearly to the end of the 
journey, it becomes then, in some sort, the duty of the recipient 
of the good to apprise his quondam associate of the good which 
he has done him. 

"During the long traveling after we separated — fifty-two years 
— the good impressions (never evil) of those few years in your 
company have surely helped me on the long road since then. 

"I hail you again, dear Fellow Traveler. I hail you as one 
who probably has helped hundreds of others by your society and 
perhaps many of them have felt all right about your goodness 
but have not thought of telling the benefactor. It has seemed to 
me that to let you know what good you have done to me can do 
you no harm and may do you some good. I have acted on this in 
writing to you. Forgive me if I have erred." 



DONNELLY MEMORIAL 265 

Favors among men are usually soon forgotten, yet 
gratitude should be one of the virtues most cultivated. 

"He that hath nature in him must be grateful, 

'Tis the Creator's primary great law 

That links the chain of beings to each other. "^ 

Gratitude arises from two other virtues : truth and 
justice. After an intimate consideration of the char- 
acter of Mr. Donnelly it is obvious that his own marked 
attributes were truth, justice and gratitude. These, 
too, were the virtues he most appreciated in others, 
and nothing was more sacred nor more highly valued 
by him than gratitude. 

Had he lived to receive the expression of apprecia- 
tion from his whilom friend he would not have con- 
sidered that he had erred in writing, for the grateful 
remembrance would have been more highly prized than 
any gift of great intrinsic value. Throughout the 
whole of his career his work was in behalf of truth and 
justice and his life was dedicated to making them 
prevail. 

The life of such a worthy character is not soon for- 
gotten, and his kind deeds and noble example will live 
in the hearts and minds of many for generations to 
come. 

^ (Madden's Themistocles.) 



JAn 12 1910 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



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